Journey of Hearts
by MissChievous13
Summary: Here are Lily and James in their 7th year at Hogwarts. Lots of things become habit,but many of them are about to change. Watch the pair and their friends begin a new and exciting year. The newly updated and improved "Journey of Hearts".
1. 01: The Last Journey

_**Hello All. It's still me, MissChievous, and yes the story looks the same.**_  
_**But it's probably been a long time since you've read it, so maybe you don't remember anyways.**_  
_**Either way, the story has changed and developed since the last time you've heard from me.**_  
_**First, it was stuck in my head.**_  
_**Then, it was eaten by a computer.**_  
_**Next, it was transferred and saved, and copied and pasted, and transferred and saved, and... you get the idea.**_  
_**But now, it is getting a thorough make over.**_

_**So, if you will, please enjoy :) It would be most appreciated :D**_

_**DISCLAIMER: Although I would love to claim every idea in this story as my own,  
I truthfully cannot say I made this all alone.  
So remember the intelligent J.K. Rowling is in the lead,  
For the characters belong to her, so for crying out loud just READ!**_

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**Chapter 1- The Last Journey**

It was a bright summer day when Lily awoke in her small blue bedroom, in her normal sized house, in her average neighborhood in Cokeworth. She got up like any girl of 17 on the first day of school, except that her thoughts about going back to school were much too happy to be the thoughts of an average high school girl. Though she had spent the entire summer at home with her Muggle family, in her Muggle town, at her Muggle job, she could still see the sky in the Great Hall, where she dined three times a day with her fellow witches and wizards in training. Together with her two best friends, she roamed the corridors wearing long black robes. They spoke with the paintings and ghosts, and practiced wand work and counter-curses. But, the only bits of magic she got during the summer, were letters from her two best friends and countless rereadings of her her school books. Even though she was now "of age" in the magical world, she lived in a non-magical community and was always surrounded by Muggles. Performing magic in the presence of a Muggle was still prohibited. Usually she would spend time with Severus, but he was so fickle.

Lily stared at her own piercing green eyes in the bathroom mirror. _Okay,_ she thought to herself, _it's our last year, and it's going to be amazing! _She swept her long dark red hair back into a loose bun and began washing her face and brushing her teeth. Then, she packed her school things. Scrambling across her powder blue carpeted bedroom to collect her robes, books, cauldron, clothes, dress robes, and wand, she remembered her first couple years of going back to Hogwarts. Sometimes she packed a week before going back to school. But as the years went on, she put off packing further and further until this morning, when she was throwing things into her trunk just an hour before she had to leave. She felt like her best friend Katarina, whom would not answer to anything but Kat, and was always rushing before class started to finish her homework. There was even one time last year, Kat had spent the night out with her new boyfriend instead of preparing a final report for Charms class. She dotted the very last "i" just as Professor Flitwick climbed onto his stack of books to accept the papers.

Finally, all packed and ready to go, with Scarlett, her owl safe in her cage, she hopped down the hall. Noticing the door to her sister's room was open, she backtracked and peeked in the door to see Petunia on the phone again. With a heavy sigh, Lily turned and continued down the stairs to breakfast.

"Good morning," Lily greeted her parents.

"Hi sweetie," Lily's mother crooned, tucking a lock of long red hair behind her ear.

"Hey there Lil. What will it be for breakfast?" her father asked as he took out a frying pan, a bowl, a whisk, and pancake mix.

Lily gasped, "Do we have blueberries?"

"That's what I forgot! Sorry Lil," he replied.

"Oh. That's okay," Lily tried to hide her disappointment by turning to set the table.

"Of course we do! You are really out of it this morning. Heath isn't here today. Don't you remember?" Lily looked down and realized that she had taken out five plates for breakfast. Her father chortled, his golden eyes twinkling like the surface of Felix Felicis. "Are you sure you are ready for your last year?" Her father began mixing the batter, resting the bowl against his soft belly as he spoke.

"Cut it out," said Lily with a pouting face. She fiddled with the forks. "I hate talking about that, and you know it."

"Well Lily, you know you have to think about it," her mother interjected.

"I know, I know," Lily replied.

"Your future is very important," her mother began as Lily mouthed each word behind her back. Lily had heard this speech at least 20 times just yesterday, not to mention suffering through an entire summer. "You really ought to start getting prepared. Your success in your final year will predict the course of your whole life." Lily's mother turned, "And stop mocking me," her mother laughed.

But soon the laughing died. "I told you what I want to do." Lily began seriously, and the tone in the room changed as it did every time this subject was breached. Breathing got more difficult for Lily, her dad turned his attention to the stove, and her mother started bouncing her thin leg nervously. "I need to help fight against-"

"The evil wizards," her mother cut in annoyingly. "I know sweetie, but isn't that... well it sounds very dangerous." Lily gave a huge sigh, closed her eyes, and wished that this conversation wouldn't turn out like all the rest of them. "Can't you leave all of those dangerous jobs to other people?"

Lily looked into her mother's pleading blue eyes. Here she saw honesty and worry, love and fear. "Mum, I can't leave a job for someone else to do just because it's dangerous. I'm good at everything a person needs to become an Auror."

"Sweetie, I'm sure you are. You're good at so many things. But is it really right for a girl-"

"The pancakes are ready," Lily's father called as he carried a plate piled high with blueberry speckled pancakes. Both thankful for the interruption, Lily and her mother served themselves some pancakes. "Petunia! Come down, and eat some breakfast!" Lily's dad called up the stairs.

"I'm coming! Jeez," Petunia yelled back.

The first pancakes were eaten in silence. Everyone was either too hungry, too nervous, or felt too awkward to speak. So Lily was left alone with her thoughts. Of course she needed to become an Auror to fight and protect her friends and family, but she didn't want to upset her parents. Or worse, make them worry or hurt them. Lily remembered the single time the sparkle was missing from her father's eyes. Lily had asked what was wrong, and her father tried to smile and explain as best as he could to a four year old, that Lily's grandparents weren't coming back from Rome. They had been flying home from their visit when the plane crashed into the ocean. Since then, Lily never trusted planes, and she never forgot the way her father's eyes looked. She never wanted to see the sparkle gone from them again.

Soon the breakfast conversation began dancing around light subjects. Lily told her parents that she would miss them and promised to study hard. Her parents told her how much they would miss her, and if she needed anything to just write, and all the usual parent stuff, so that by the time they were finished eating, Lily was a little happy to be leaving home and going back to school where her parents couldn't bug her anymore.

When Lily and her mother began clearing the table, her sister still hadn't come down. Petunia and Lily couldn't have been any different despite their being sisters. Petunia had poofy blond hair, dull brown eyes, and horsey front teeth with braces. Petunia was also obsessed with her steady boyfriend, Vernon Dursley. Petunia had met him in the office where she works, and if they weren't in the same room together, they were at least sharing the same phone line.

Before she knew it, it was 10:30am. Lily raced up the stairs to grab her trunk. She snatched a few lip glosses that she thought she may need, and the picture of her parents that always watched over her as she slept. She shoved her glosses into her trunk, save her favorite one, which she stuffed into the pocket of her jeans, and carefully wedged the picture between her robes on which her brand-new, golden "Head Girl" pin was fastened and ready to be shown off. Then, she closed, locked her trunk and began dragging it out of her room.

Lily wished she could just levitate it down the stairs, but she lugged it down instead. She then raced back up the stairs, poked her head in Petunia's door and shouted, "Bye!" Petunia's only response was to yell at Lily to get out.

Hurriedly, Lily said her farewells to her parents, as her father dragged her trunk to the taxi. She gave them both enormous hugs and kisses on their cheeks, then set off to King's Cross.

As the taxi wound its way to King's Cross Station, Lily realized that this would be her last time making this journey, until maybe one day later in her life her son or daughter would be accepted into Hogwarts and ride the Hogwarts Express. Smelling the sweet summer, and feeling the strong wind flick her hair around the corners of her face, she thought that time was still a long way into the future. Today, her parents could not come to send her off to school. Her father was only able to get the morning off from his job in the lab, and her mother had to take Petunia to the office since Petunia refused to learn how to drive. Lily wouldn't admit it, but she secretly wished her parents had come with her. It was her last year, and it just seemed right to have her parents beside her. Especially, she would have loved to have her mother's energy backing her up.

No matter what happened, Lily's mother could make her feel better and put a smile back on her face. Lily always thought that if she could be like her mother in the future, she would be lucky. Her energy and her hair. That's why Lily had long hair. She always loved watching her mother's hair swish each time she turned her head, and when she was little, her mother let her brush and style it, even when she got it stuck in the comb. Their personalities were similar, their looks were similar, but their opinions on what jobs were suitable for Lily, were very different. Lily really wanted to be an Auror, but she longed for her mother's approval to give her strength.

Before she knew it, Lily's taxi pulled up to the station. Jumping out, Lily paid the driver and grabbed her trunk and cage, nearly knocking over an old lady on the sidewalk. She hastily offered an apology while dumping her things onto a trolly, then she hurtled through the overcrowded station. Barreling past mothers and fathers, grandparents, and children, Lily watched the bold black numbered gates rise until the number 9. Leaning against a brick wall, Lily caught her breath, and checked the time. Good, she wasn't late.

She straightened her clothes and tamed her hair. Then she walked up to the barrier between platforms nine and ten, until she noticed three boys already standing there. To her dismay, she had gotten to Platform 9 and three-quarters, just in time to meet the infamous Marauders, minus Peter, Lily noted. She tried to divert her path, but it was too late!

"Hey there pretty lady!" called the second tallest boy with glasses and painfully untidy black hair which, Lily noticed, he now began to ruffle, making it even messier.

"Hi James," she replied with no enthusiasm whatsoever. Lily knew that many people would say that James was one of the two best looking boys at Hogwarts. He was the seeker on the Gryffindor Quidditch Team, and though that was a job often held by scrawny students, he was surprisingly muscular. Lily admitted that he was rather attractive, but his personality made him as unattractive as the underside of a toilet seat in a public bathroom. What made it even worse, was that he liked to torment Lily by asking her out at least five times a day.

"How was your summer?" James asked with a huge crooked grin on his face.

"Better when I didn't have to see you, Potter." She replied lazily.

"Oh. I…I just-" he stammered. She had caught him of guard.

"Yeah. Exactly," she cut him off.

"Well, ladies first!" said Sirius jumping in to save his best friend's dignity. Dropping into a low bow, he motioned Lily through the gateway first. Sirius was what most people in the school would call, the other one of the two best looking boys at Hogwarts. He had shaggy jet black hair, which reminded Lily of a dog, and mysterious blue eyes. He was the tallest Marauder, with a knack for both conducting huge pranks and attracting large amounts of trouble. The most noticeable thing about him though, was his sense of humor. Sirius was always cracking jokes, despite the implication of his name.

"Well thanks Sirius, but seeing as you 'guys'," she motioned with air quotes, "were here first acting like immature first years, you can go first." Lily of course looked at Remus to let him know she wasn't referring to him. Remus was the only Marauder Lily could stand. He had light features and was Lily's fellow prefect. He would no doubt be Head Boy. He was smart, sensible, good-looking like his friends, though not completely prank-crazy.

"Wow men, it looks like we've got a little 'firecracker' on our hands," James retorted, mocking Lily's air quotes.

Lily gave him a death glare, turned, and walked through the gate without so much as a glance back.

Through the gateway Lily was met with a cloud of steam and a shout of, "LILY!" as two girls ran up to her at top speed and almost knocked her over.

"Kat! Ali!" Lily hugged them.

"Come on! Let's go find a compartment so we can talk! Pronto!" suggested Kat, her hazel eyes sparkling with excitement. Ali and Lily followed behind Kat as she led the way to the bright red Hogwarts Express shouting, "Move it or lose it! Head Girl and Head best friends coming through!"

"So," Ali started, once the three girls had found themselves a compartment towards the front of the train, "how was your summer?"

"You don't remember from the 8,000 letters I sent you?" asked Kat as the girls loaded their things into the luggage racks above their heads and set their owls on their seats.

"Oh yeah," Ali replied, her beautiful face pulled into an apologetic grimace.

"Sometimes I wonder how you have some of the best grades in our class," Kat teased, as she pulled her wavy brown hair into a ponytail.

"And sometimes I wonder how _you_ haven't failed out of school." Lily joined in.

"Hey!" Kat gave Lily a soft punch on the arm and pretended to look offended.

"Are you going out with Potter yet?" Ali asked.

"What?" Lily stared at her friend, surprised by the sudden question. "Why on earth would I be going out with him? I loathe him! What kind of a question is that?"

"No," Kat interjected, as she turned to braid Ali's shimmery blond mane, "she's got a point. I was also wondering if you two were finally going out."

"Yeah, remember that one time last year when we were in potions class?" Ali started.

"And she finished brewing that 'lust loving' potion!" Kat added excitedly, obviously remembering the exact time her friend was talking about.

"The 'Love's Luster' potion," Lily corrected dully.

"Yeah, whatever," Kat continued, "And James literally knocked his cauldron on the floor!"

"And the Ravenclaws sitting around him had copper patches on their hands and faces for three weeks!"

"And the one on Bill Galbraith's nose turned green!"

Kat and Ali howled with laughter at the memory. "You are both insane," Lily stated.

"Well," Ali hesitated, wiping the tears from her large, round, blue eyes, "we saw him come through the barrier right after you, so you must have been talking to him."

"Don't you know anything about me?" Lily stood up. "Have you forgotten how much I hate him?"

"Of course not," Kat stood up too, stretching her height that wasn't much taller than Lily's. "We just thought that you'd finally realized how hopelessly perfect the two of you are."

"Yes, you are crazy," Lily threw up her hands.

"That's strange then. Because there are two of us, and one of you," Ali stood now, casting the other two girls in her tall, thin shadow. "So maybe, you're really the crazy one, and the two of us are the sensible ones."

"I concur," Kat threw her fist into the air. "You are the crazy girl," she pointed at Lily.

"That's 'Crazy _Head_-Girl' to you." Lily replied smugly.

Kat and Ali both exploded with laughter. "_Crazy_-head girl! Yes, that is you!" screamed Kat through fits of laughter.

"Ha, ha," Lily replied sarcastically, though unable to prevent a real smile from spreading across her face. "Well this 'Crazy-head Girl' has to go set up the prefects meeting. I'll be back in a bit!"

Lily extracted her wand from her trunk, then left the compartment, still able to hear Ali's screeches of 'crazy-head girl' as she changed into her robes. Laughing to herself, she checked her new golden "Head Girl" pin in the mirror. Lily wiped an invisible smudge from its shiny surface, and thought that it's oval shape and curly calligraphy suited her style just perfectly. Wearing her pin proudly, she proceeded to the prefects' carriage. The bright red carpet on the train's floor matched the color of the steam engine, perfectly. Lily still remembered the first time she laid eyes on the Hogwarts Express.

_She said goodbye to her parents and sister, and had gotten through the barrier just fine. But on the other side, she was in shock. The bright red steam engine made her stop in her tracks. She'd seen trains before but this one was different. Maybe it had just been her mind making things seem larger than life, but the engine was much bigger and much more intimidating than all of the other trains Lily had seen before._

_As she was admiring the train and trying to find where to go, she was knocked clear over by someone or something. By the time she righted herself, she looked up to see a boy about her age, helping her collect her things. His hair was black and messy, and his eyes were golden beneath his glasses. He didn't say sorry. He didn't ask if she was alright. He just helped her pick up her things, and then walked away into the train. In Lily's memory, it was not a very pleasant first encounter._

Lost in thought, Lily hadn't realized that she had opened the door to the prefects room, until her eyes came upon a scene that she simply could not register. It just couldn't be possible.


	2. 02: The Ride to Hogwarts

_**Hi everyone :)**_

_**So I decided to post the second chapter right away.  
I've got a bunch of them almost ready to post, but they still need some tweaking.  
So I hope you enjoy this one too :)**_

_**Also, I'd be really grateful if you took a few moments to review what you've read.  
That way, I'll better be able to tell if the rewrite is having the effects I'd like it to have :)**_

_**Thanks so much! Happy Reading ^_^  
-MissChievous  
**_

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_**Chapter 2- The Ride to Hogwarts  
**_

Lily straightened up, closed her mouth, smoothed out her crisp black robes, and said in a low voice, "James Potter, you'd best give that badge right back to the poor bloke you stole it from before I take points away."

James only grinned at her, just like he did every time he won a Quidditch game. So proud and self-assured that it made Lily second guess herself. But she recovered, remembering that there was absolutely no way Professor Dumbledore would appoint someone to the post of Head Boy who landed himself in detention almost daily.

"Potter, I swear I'll take points. As much as I want Gryffindor to win, I'll do it," Lily threatened him.

"Lily, oh Lily," James sang with the confident grin still in place. "Haven't you heard? I am Head Boy!"

"Now be serious," Lily pleaded.

"You called me, Love?" Sirius poked his shaggy black haired head in the compartment door.

"What?" Lily said, thoroughly confused.

"You called my name. I just wanted to know what it was that you wanted, Love," Sirius dragged out the last syllable like an old Hollywood actress.

Unfortunately for Sirius, Lily was not in a joking mood. "You two are seriously impossible," Lily muttered.

"No… he's _Jamesly_ impossible, I'm Siriusly impossible!" Sirius said with triumph spread across his face.

As James went over to immaturely high-five Sirius for his cleverness, Lily walked away shaking her head and complaining, "Boys…"

Lily looked around the familiar car that always seemed to be much bigger than it could have been. There was a large oak conference table at the center, with plush red chairs surrounding it and a modest chandelier above. There were some other smaller tables with chairs to one side, a few filing cabinets, a sink, a refrigerator, and a bookshelf to the other side. The space seemed at least three times bigger than any of the other cars, but Lily was thankful for this fact, especially today because it meant that she could be even further away from James Potter.

Soon all of this year's prefects began to pile into the car, and Lily was relieved to see Remus.

"Remus, James has stolen your 'Head Boy' badge," Lily informed him.

Remus, to Lily's surprise, looked slightly embarrassed. "Umm, Lily. I'm… not… I'm not Head Boy." Remus confessed.

Lily could have died with shock and embarrassment. "Oh, Remus. I-I'm so sorry. I didn't mean—"

"No, no, no. It's quite alright. Really, I don't mind," Remus assured her. Lily felt that Remus was being honest, though she could not understand why. She wanted to know why he didn't mind. How he wasn't 'Head Boy'. How it was possible that someone out did him. How he wasn't angry that he didn't have the badge. But by this time, Lily still hadn't found the right words to express that she couldn't think of another person better suited to be 'Head Boy'.

Waiting for the deep blush in her cheeks to subside, Lily cleared her throat, "Then, do you know who James stole the pin from?" she asked slowly, twisting her fingers.

"Well, as far as I know, James was chosen," Remus replied, and Lily's heart sank. She had been looking forward to having Remus as her partner because he was responsible. He always did his share of the work in classes. He didn't leave studying until last minute, and he didn't spend half of his school life in detention. Although, he was out sick quite a bit, but that was a different matter altogether.

Panicking about how she was going to balance classes, homework, Professor Slughorn's Club, studying for N.E.W.T.'s, taking N.E.W.T.'s, and Head duties for two people, Lily walked up to James and stared right into his face, trying to see how Professor Dumbledore could have ever thought that James Potter was the appropriate choice for 'Head Boy'.

"Uh, Lily?" James looked at her with his bushy eyebrows squished together. "I know I'm good-looking and all, but I didn't know you thought I looked this good. I'm flattered!" James exclaimed with a huge toothy grin.

Lily snapped out of her trance-like state of bewilderment, and stared at him incredulously. "James Potter, I was staring at you trying to figure out how on earth an egotistical, big-headed nitwit like you managed to get 'Head Boy'. Which by the way, requires that you aren't the biggest prat that ever lived." Lily shot angrily at him.

James obviously was not expecting this answer. For the first time, Lily thought she saw actual pain in his eyes, and she felt sorry in the instant that she saw it. But then she wondered what he was expecting. Did he think that just because he was 'Head Boy' that she would drool all over him like the rest of the girls in the school? Was she, Lily, supposed to be impressed?

The train car was silent. Every prefect was staring at their Head Boy and Girl. Some mouths were hanging open. Some people had frozen in strange positions having stopped at the sound of Lily's anger. One prefect was even in the process of pinning his badge to his robes and didn't realize that he was in fact pinning his finger. Lily walked over to the fifth year boy, unstuck the pin from his finger, and performed a simple charm to stop the bleeding and heal the skin, before she said, "Alright then. Is everyone present?"

The Head Boy and Head Girl didn't speak directly to each other until the meeting was over.

James broke the silence first. "You really think that about me?" James asked in a small voice as they cleaned up after the meeting.

Lily's rage had cooled off a bit and she didn't feel like yelling anymore, but she was still mad that he was 'Head Boy'. "Yes, Potter, I do. And I know it's true because I see it everyday." Lily replied calmly.

"You know, I promise I'm really not that bad if you'd give me just half a chance. I was only teasing you before, anyways." James tried.

Lily took a breath about to speak, but stopped herself. It was no use trying to argue this one. "I'm sorry I yelled at you," she said finally. "But you're still an egotistical git." And with that, Lily exited the car leaving a silent James Potter in her wake.

Still reeling through the events of the past half hour, Lily almost walked past her compartment. She heard her friends, but Kat and Ali's voices weren't the only ones she could hear. She could hear three others in addition to her friends. Although Lily did not mind her good friend Remus being there, the fact that he was there with Sirius and Peter, meant that James would be joining them too.

"Oh, hey Lily," Ali greeted her.

"How was the meeting?" Kat asked.

Sirius snorted, "You should ask her who her other Head will be."

Ali and Kat exchanged confused looks, then they both turned to face Lily, expectantly. But Lily, not wanting to admit the fact aloud, took a seat next to the window and watched the dreary countryside fly past her instead. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she pleaded with fate, hoping to believe that this was all a big mistake, and that Professor Dumbledore had simply gotten Potter mixed up with Peters from Ravenclaw. Saying that Potter was Head Boy with her own voice, would confirm it as fact. And then Lily wouldn't be able to take comfort in the possibility that it was all one frightening mix-up. Just like when she first met James and thought he was cute.

_Back then Lily, the tiny first year that she was, struggled for thirty minutes to get her trunk down the hallway of the train to find an open compartment, when finally, a much older boy with red hair came to her rescue. He levitated her trunk easily down the hallway, and finding out that she was not from a magical family, asked her all sorts of questions about what he called, "The Muggle World." By the time they had found a compartment that was empty enough to allow Lily and her trunk to enter, she was relieved to leave red haired boy and his strangely enthusiastic questions about electricity._

_In the cruelest twists of fate, Lily had found herself in a compartment of four bouncing boisterous boys. She came to know them later as, "The Marauders." When she entered the compartment and said goodbye to the red haired boy, the four boys took no notice of her. They were jumping on the seats and talking very loudly about some kind of testing hat. Content with being unnoticed, Lily's stomach gave an unpleasant lurch when one of the boys jumped off of the seat and onto her trunk._

_"And who might you be?" a cute boy with wavy black hair asked her._

_Then another boy landed in front of her, his hazel eyes sparkling like snow at sunrise. He opened his mouth to say something, but Lily cut him off, "You?" she had said. "You're the boy who knocked me over on the platform."_

_The second boy with the hazel eyes had stared at her like she had an eyeball in the middle of her nose, but he didn't respond._

_"James, you know her? Why don't you introduce us?" the first boy asked. By then, the other two boys had stopped bouncing, and were watching the scene interestedly._

_"I didn't say that I knew him, I said he knocked me over on the platform," Lily corrected. "Why don't you apologize?"_

_The young James had finally found his voice as his hand ruffled his short black hair, "I helped you pick up your things."_

_"That's true," Lily thought._

_"But I wasn't the one-" James started, but then Lily's friend Severus entered the compartment._

_"There you are, Lily. I've been looking all over for you." Severus' black hair was in his face as usual. But his hair wasn't the same as the other boys in the compartment. The first boy's hair was shiny and wavy and looked like it belonged in a hair care advertisement. The second boy's hair was also black, but short. And even though it was very messy, it still looked cool. Severus' hair was greasy and stuck together in chunks. Lily had been embarrassed for him._

_"So your name is Lily?" James had asked her._

_"Yes, I'm Lily Evans," she replied with a smile._

_"My name is-"_

_"James," Lily cut him off. "Your friend said your name before," she pointed at the first boy who had spoken._

_"My name is Sirius," the first boy said. "And this is Remus, and that's Peter," he said, pointing to the other two boys._

_"And I'm Severus," Severus stated. "Lily, come on, there is a compartment down a little further for us."_

_"Oh come on, why don't you stay here with us?" James asked, looking at Lily._

_Lily had started to say "yes," but Severus cut her off._

_"Why would we want to stay here with you lot?" he sneered._

_"Severus," Lily said, slightly shocked at his tone. "They seem nice, why don't we stay here?"_

_"Lily, why do you want to stay here with them? There are some much better people down the train a bit. Ones who aren't so full of themselves," Severus shot an appraising look at the four boys._

_"What," Sirius challenged, "our hair isn't dirty enough for your company?"_

_"Stop," Lily said. "That was rude," she shot a look at the boy named Sirius. Then glancing at James, she turned to Severus, "Can't we stay here? My trunk is really heavy, and I'm tired."_

_Severus had looked into Lily's eyes and given in. "Okay, just let me go get my things."_

_Lily beamed at him and gave him a quick hug. "See you soon then."_

_Severus had left the compartment and never come back. But Lily had had a great first train ride with the four boys telling her all about the school and what to expect. They even explained about the Houses, and which one they hoped to be in, and what each one was known for, including the one known for dark magic. By the time the train stopped, Lily knew much more about the magical school, and found that she really liked the four boys; especially James, with the glasses and the golden hazel eyes._

Just then, as if he had been called to the room by her thoughts, none other than James Potter entered the compartment jarring Lily back to the present. "Who wants a picture with your new 'Head Boy'? I'm taking orders." James grinned his pearly whites at the girls. Lily turned away with a sour look on her face, and nearly choked when she heard her friends voices.

"You're Head Boy?" Ali gasped.

"Don't sound so surprised," Sirius said, sounding affronted for his friend.

"Congratulations! The best looking 'Head Boy' Hogwarts has ever had," Kat cheered.

"That's more like it! Best looking and most amazing Quidditch Star," Peter added reverently, his already watery eyes, looking even more watery than usual.

"Now you'll get to spend lots of time with Lily. Isn't that right?" Ali said, and Lily closed her eyes and prayed for patience.

"Do you think the two of you will have a special 'Heads' bathroom like they do for the prefects?" Kat asked with a juicy tone. A tone that Lily did not approve of.

"Okay, okay, James is Head Boy. Let's all crack open some Butterbeer. Yeesh," Lily rolled her eyes. About two years ago Lily might have been excited about the prospect of being co-Heads with Potter, but after their fifth year and what happened there, she couldn't think of him or treat him in the same way.

Sirius jumped up, "That sounds like a wicked idea!" He jumped around the compartment, his black hair flouncing about his face. "Anyone got any?"

"Of course we don't have Butterbeer, you idiot," Lily said. Taking the strong cue from their friend, Kat and Ali sat back down and stopped praising James. "So, in the last letter you sent me, you were talking about Francois?" Lily spoke to Kat. Wishing to ignore James at all costs, Lily fully involved herself in gossip about her friends' summers.

Then, just as Kat was getting into a particularly dramatic part of her summer-fling story, James called, "Lily, my love. It is time. We must depart."

"Good. Go then," Lily said impatiently as she continued to listen to Kat.

"No, you must come as well. Bid your friends a fond farewell and follow me," James announced, putting on an act of chivalry.

"You must be munching on Dungbombs again. Can't you see? I'm in the middle of a story. I don't have time for your shenanigans. If we must depart or whatever then go. I don't see the problem." Lily snapped.

"Alright, I guess I'll just have to make _our_ rounds all by my lonesome," James shrugged.

"Oh!" Lily exclaimed, jumping out of her seat. Then she turned to James and the energy she had exited her body completely. "Let's go," she sighed.

"After you m'lady. The most beautiful, most gorgeous, most wonderful, most—"

"Save it Potter. And shove it where the sun don't shine."

"Ouch Evans!" James gasped, faking injury to his heart. Sirius looked up just in time to catch the fainting James. Sirius and James had pulled this many times, and Lily rolled her eyes. "That hurt!" said the now limp body of James hanging from Sirius' arms.

"Potter..." Lily began in a seductive tone.

"Yeah?" James exclaimed excitedly jumping from Sirius' arms.

"Let's go!" Lily ordered, breaking the act. And with that, James bowed his head in defeat and walked out the door. As soon as Lily closed it, she heard Sirius howl with laughter.

"Alright," Lily started, "Let's start at the back of the train and work our way up."

"Yes, ma'am." James replied with a soldier salute.

Lily rolled her eyes. They walked along in silence, each kept to his or her own thoughts. Lily was still wondering how James could possibly be Head Boy, when she was jarred back to the real world. She heard screaming from a nearby compartment, opened the door, and saw her brother Heath Evans.

The scene that met her eyes made Lily shake her head with a grin. Her younger brother, Heath, was standing on one of the seats shouting, "No way! Pasta is way better than grilled cheese! I mean, grilled cheese is just cheese and bread!"

Lily laughed. There was her short, red haired, skinny little third-year brother, trying to win his fight by standing on the red cushioned bench. Heath was loud, but also smart, even though his mind was often on food.

On the other side of the compartment, Michael Short, Ali's younger brother and Heath's best friend, screamed, "No way! Grilled cheese is the best, and I win! So there!" Mikey was tall for a third year and did not have to stand on the bench to compete with Heath. His hair was light brown, and he had blue-grey eyes, very similar to his older sister's. But, he was much louder and outspoken than her.

"Hey! What are you two screaming for?" Lily teased making them both jump.

"Hey! Lilymeister!" Heath yelled as he almost tackled his sister to the ground.

"Heath Bar!" Lily shouted back as she hugged her brother.

"Jamsiepoo!" yelled James startling everyone in the compartment. Heath, Mikey, and their friends all laughed at James' joke, but Lily just rolled her eyes. "What?" James asked innocently. "I felt left out!"

"How are you Heath? We missed you at breakfast this morning," Lily said.

"I'm wonderful," Heath grinned. "Hey guys! This is my big sister," Heath boasted to his friends. "She's Head Girl, so if you ever need anything-"

"Heath!" Lily cut in, a little shocked but laughing.

"Only joking, Lily," Heath said. Lily noticed her brother nervously glance back at friends.

"Oh! Is the _girl_ here? The one you wouldn't tell mum about?" Lily whispered secretively, nudging her brother.

"Yes, so don't say anything," Heath warned with a sheepish grin.

"I won't," Lily promised. "But I have to go now and finish up my rounds with this ruddy dolt," she said unenthusiastically.

"Okay sis, I'll see you later!" and Heath turned back to his friends.

"Tell Ali to study hard or I'll disown her!" Mikey called.

"Okay," Lily laughed. "Roger that."

Lily turned to the door and realized that James was staring at her with that look in his eyes. "What?" she asked as she closed the door and continued walking

"Lily? Will you go out with me?"

"Potter, how many times do I have to tell you?" Lily pleaded as they passed by a compartment of Slytherins.

"Only once when your answer is 'yes'!" James replied with a spring in his step.

"Oh, nice try Potter, but sorry, you are assuming and consequently are mistaken." Lily paused waiting for James to start whining again, but when she looked at him, he looked as if he were waiting for an answer. "No, no, no, and no!"

"Well that was not very lady-like of the Gryffindor, Ms. Prim and Proper Head Girl," James teased.

"Whatever," Lily said.

"Come now, you can't be serious! You know you want to say 'yes'! You know you want to!" James persisted.

"No! I'm serious alright?" Lily assured him.

"No, you're not!" James said.

"Yes I am," Lily said opening the door to the compartment where their friends were sitting, "I'm dead serious!"

"Oh no! You can't die! James, you foul prat! You've killed her!" Sirius said as he jumped up from his seat, ready to catch Lily if she fell.

"Ah! I didn't mean 'I'm dead, Sirius'! I meant—" Lily pleaded.

"Ah ha! I told you, you weren't serious!" James exclaimed, his eyes narrowed in determination. "So that means you'll go out with me?" James asked hopefully.

"I—" but Lily was cut off again.

Sirius gasped. "Wait. You said _you_ were Sirius? How _dare_ you?" Sirius exclaimed in a scandalized tone. "I am Sirius! I'm the only one worthy enough of the title because I am so serious," Sirius said making a face in which Lily thought he tried to look like he was intensely concentrating, but actually looked like-

"Are you constipated, mate?" James asked, patting Sirius on the back in a consoling manner.

"What? I can be serious!" Sirius pleaded.

"Sure, Padfoot. You can be serious when Peter here becomes the top student in our year." James said.

"Hey!" Peter whined.

"Alright guys. Calm down, we're almost there," Remus tried to settle his friends through his laughter.

* * *

_**Thank you so much for reading :D**_  
_**I would be so grateful to you, if you could please write me a few words on what you think of what you read.**_  
_**Any questions, comments, critiques, criticisms, praise, or otherwise, are crucial to the writing process.  
So, Thank You, in advance to any and all who take the few seconds to review ^_^  
-MissChievous  
**_


	3. 03: The Beginning

**_Hi everyone :)  
MissChievous here, with another newly rewritten chapter.  
Enjoy!  
_**

* * *

**Chapter 3- The Beginning_  
_**

The train stopped and everyone began piling out. "Firs' yers this way!" shouted the familiar voice of Hagrid the keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts. Every year the first years would follow Hagrid and ride in little boats across the lake, no matter the weather. Rain, sun, snow, sleet, giant fireballs falling from the sky… nothing would prevent Hagrid from making the initiation trip. Lily remembered her great journey across the lake.

_Lily and her new friends got to the Hogwarts platform, got off the train, and jumped when they heard a loud booming voice. "Firs' yers this way!" Lily looked up to see the tallest largest man she had ever seen. He was taller than her dad. He was taller than her garage! And he was wider than a car. His hair was long and scraggly. The kind of hair her sister would shriek at the sight of. And his beard was long and hid most of his face. Lily vaguely wondered what his real face looked like, but soon her new friend, James, had taken her hand and was leading her forward._

_The students followed the large man to a row of slightly beaten up rowboats. Amazed at how the boat managed to hold such a gigantic man, Lily let herself be loaded onto a rickety boat with her new friends. The weather that day was windy. The sky threatened rain, but the clouds mercifully held together. The large man, tapped his boat with a worn out pink umbrella, and the boats tugged forward in unison, fighting the wind and waves._

_Amazed at the magic, Lily almost missed her first glimpse of her new school. While she was inspecting the back of the boat for a motor, which she didn't find, Sirius elbowed her. Lily saw his lips moving, but she couldn't hear his voice. The wind was howling in her ears, and her hair was whipping her face. So, Sirius pointed somewhere in the distance, and Lily turned to see a magnificent castle. Its many roofs seemed to grow taller as she took in its beauty. The towers touched the sky, the walls twisted and turned, and the green hills danced in Lily's eyes. The lights coming from the windows beckoned her into them, begging her to explore the rooms they led to. Lily had never seen a building as alive as the one before her. It was like it was conversing with her._

Lily, Kat, and Ali headed for one of the horseless carriages in which the rest of the students rode to the castle. But just as Lily was reaching for the black horned handle, someone grabbed it and snarled, "What do you think _you're_ doing, Mudblood?"

"Don't make me take points Malfoy," Lily sighed.

"Ooo, I'm shaking in my robes," Lucius Malfoy mocked. "Do it, and I'll kill you right here," he hissed in her ear. "You know I could."

"Try me, Malfoy. You think you're such a tough guy because your daddy is a Death Eater, well I'm not scared. Tell him that. Tell him that you failed to frighten a poor little muggle-born girl. I'm sure he'd be very happy with you." Lily continued just as softly as Malfoy had. Then she spotted him, Severus. Her throat clenched painfully, and she almost felt like crying.

"Why you—" Malfoy began, malice dripping from his words.

"Come on girls," Lily turned away. "This carriage is occupied by half witted, blood thirsty, Voldemort-worshipping, pricks," she threw over her shoulder, just loud enough for him to hear.

Suddenly, Lily screamed in pain as Malfoy grabbed a fistful of her raving red hair. "How dare you speak His name! You filthy, good-for-nothing, Mudblood! You say you're not afraid? Well then you are foolish! You will see, when all those you love are gone and you are the only one left! Then you will know afraid!"

Lily was startled. What would Malfoy do in front of all of these people? She could feel her eyes watering from the pain, but Lily remained strong, not letting something so small as a death threat push her around. "What? Be afraid of who? Oh, you mean, be afraid of your murdering, gutless, so-called 'leader', Voldemort?"

"Why you insolent big-mouthed brat!" Lily gasped as Malfoy pulled even harder on her hair so that she was in a half back-bend. "I'll just have to _teach_ you to be afraid!" Malfoy raised his wand to her throat and whispered as quietly as he could, "_Cru_—"

"_Expelliarmus_!"

Lily felt Malfoy's wand fly away from her face and took the opportunity to wrench her head out of Malfoy's grasp. "Ahhh, Potter. Nice of you to join the Mudblood and me for a little chat."

James charged at him, "Call her that again and you will no longer have the _ability_ to speak, much less choose your own foul words," he threatened, slamming Malfoy up against the side of the carriage.

Malfoy couldn't do anything without his wand, so he shoved James off and muttered "Mudblood-lover," just loud enough for James to hear.

"Incorrect! _Vox extr—_"

"_Expelliarmus_!" Lily yelled. "Potter, just forget it. You are Head Boy and scum like him is just not worth your time. Just let it go."

"Lily!" James pleaded, outraged as he went to retrieve his wand. "He called you a…"

"I know what he called me. I don't need your help!" With that Lily turned on heel and walked away leaving James astounded and her friends' mouths still open from the moment Malfoy had grabbed her. So, Lily grabbed her friends and walked to a carriage far away from Malfoy, and her spineless ex-best friend, Severus.

___Lily searched for Severus, and when she finally found him, they were already walking through, what James told her was, the Great Hall. Severus was with some boys that looked to Lily, evil. There was no other way to describe their sharp shrewd features. They just looked evil._

_Watching the students before her, Lily cheered when Sirius was put into Gryffindor. He had told her that he wanted to be in any house but Slytherin. Then Lily herself, was sorted into Gryffindor. Her new friends cheered for her, but when she looked over at Severus and grinned at him, he didn't return the smile. The other three boys were put into Gryffindor with her, along with two other girls Lily had seen on the boat ride, but Severus was placed in Slytherin. Lily had hoped that he would join her in Gryffindor, but he seemed happy to be in Slytherin, so Lily was happy for him.  
_

_Later, after the most extravagant meal Lily had ever eaten, Severus approached her in the corridor._

_"So," he had said, "you're in Gryffindor."_

_He didn't sound all that happy with it, but Lily smiled at him and his expression softened. "I can't wait to see which lessons we will have together."_

_Just then, a few of Severus' new friends came up to him. "Who's this?" A large blond boy, with slitted gray eyes asked._

_"This is my friend, Lily," Severus began. "She's-"_

_"A mudblood," the blond boy sneered._

_"Excuse me?" Lily asked. She didn't know what a "mudblood" was, but the boy had said it with such disgust, that she could tell it was something he didn't approve of._

_"I said that you are a mudblood. I could smell you across the Great Hall, and it rather ruined my appetite," the blond boy said._

_"Well, we could smell your slimy gelled hair from across the lake! Isn't that right, Sirius?" James and the three other boys came to Lily's side._

_"Potter," the blond boy spat._

_"Malfoy."_

_Then Malfoy looked up and spotted, "Black? Why didn't you sit with us for dinner?"_

_"Because I'm not like the rest of you Dark Art worshiping heathens," Sirius shot back._

_At this point Lily was lost in the conversation. She couldn't make heads or tails of what was happening, all she knew was that the atmosphere was more intense than anything she had felt before, and her heart was beating rapidly without her permission. She also knew that she did not like the blond boy named Malfoy. His very presence made her uneasy, and she could tell that there was something dark about him._

_"Severus, I'll see you later then."_

_"Are you friends with this?" Malfoy asked Severus, pointing at Lily._

_"Do you have a problem with me?" Lily said angrily. She could feel her temperature and temper rising._

_Malfoy laughed, "Your parents are both muggles. Correct?"_

_Lily did not respond. She just kept glaring up at the large blond boy as he came closer to her._

_"Of course they are," he had said through gritted teeth. "I can smell it all over you. Rotten, putrid, and disgusting," he turned to look to his friends who were all laughing, and that's when she struck. Lily aimed a powerful kick to Malfoy's groin, and walked away._

_It was just after that moment, that sides were chosen and fate was set in motion. She heard James and Sirius yell words she didn't recognize, felt wind rushing past both sides of her, which was impossible because they were inside, and turned around to see Malfoy with things that resembled squirming mushrooms growing from his face, and Severus with five arms that looked like rubber, his wand on the ground by his side._

_"What did you do that for?" Lily shouted at James and Sirius._

_"They were trying to hex you!" James explained._

_"Are you okay, Severus?" Lily rushed to his side, picking up his wand. "Why did you hex him? He would never hurt me," Lily raged at James._

_"His wand was raised!" James looked taken aback. "Did you want me to just let him curse you? I was just trying to help you!"_

_"I don't need your help!" Lily growled at James. And she whipped her hair as she turned to take Severus to the Hospital Wing._

"Uh!" Lily exclaimed once they were in the carriage. "I can't _stand_ him! Walking around like he's such a big shot! 'Look at me! Look at me!'" Lily mocked. "Uhh, it's completely revolting!"

"Don't worry about it. _No one_ can stand Malfoy." Ali said.

"Except for Slytherins," Kat said. "You know of course, they all run in the same circle. All their daddies are friends, and you work your way up by killing. It's disgusting if you ask me."

"It's barbaric!" Ali said.

"What?" Lily asked confused. "No! I can't stand _Potter_!"

"James?" both Ali and Kat exclaimed.

"Yes, Potter."

"But… but…" Kat stuttered.

"He just saved your life!" Ali exclaimed. "I mean, I don't know very many people who would just step in there like he did. You should be thanking him, Lily!"

"Whatever. Malfoy didn't even have his wand. Potter only did it to look cool. To look like he can live up to his title. Wow, what a great guy," Lily continued sarcastically. "I could have handled it! Plus, with the spell he threw at Malfoy, he could have hit me!"

"Lily, I don't know how you don't see it." Kat began. "James Potter, one of the hottest guys in school and possibly on the face of the planet, is completely smitten with you, and you can't even acknowledge it! Hello? Is anybody home?" Kat continued, knocking playfully on Lily's head, "Wake up and smell the Pepper-Up potion."

"Can you honestly say that you hate him?" Ali added. "For your sake, I hope you get over it, considering you have to spend the entire year dealing him. Just give him a chance."

"But I—"

"No!" Kat exclaimed. "No buts! What, are you scared you'll end up liking him? Are you scared because he likes you? Whether you see it or not, James Potter is—"

"At your service!" James exclaimed as he entered the carriage. "Talking about me again? Wow Evans, this must be a record. I've never been so flattered!"

Lily shot an angry look at her friends, who at least had the decency to look apologetic. "What do you think _you're_ doing Potter?" Lily said.

"We're all joining you. There's nowhere else to sit!" James exclaimed gleefully sitting almost on top of Lily. "Isn't this wonderful? I haven't seen you in, like, forever! Like, what's up?" James asked with a valley girl flick of his hair.

"Why are you so difficult?" Lily said disgustedly as she moved herself all the way against the wall of the carriage. But then she saw the injured look on James' face and felt a twinge of remorse.

"Hey there!" Sirius shouted, announcing his presence. "Did you miss me? I think you did!" Sirius said to a giggling Kat.

"Do you mind if we sit with you?" Remus asked politely before setting foot in the carriage. Remus was of course the only Marauder who was ever polite.

"No problem!" answered Ali, receiving a malicious glare from Lily who now sat squished between the wall and an extremely bouncy Head Boy. "So! What's everyone taking this year?"

"Ali, you can't honestly be asking this question," Kat pleaded. "You know we're almost in all the same classes! Did you go swimming over the summer and hit your head one too many times on the bottom of the pool?"

"Now, now girls, lets not have to break out the smart-ass patrol. Let's keep it calm and clean." Sirius motioned to keep the level down with his hands.

"Sorry Black, I was born a smart-ass, and a smart-ass I shall be until bullfrogs have wings." Kat shot back through a smirk.

"Well, well, well. What do we have here? A little competition between Dweedle-Dee and Dweedle-Dum?" Peter asked. "We have Ms. Katarina Miller to my left and Mr. Sirius Black on my right. It is a battle of wits ladies and gentlemen, I wonder who will win?"

"Nice one Wormtail!" James congratulated his friend on his humor with a high-five, and Kat looked threateningly at Peter. He had used her full name. So the ride was pretty uneventful, except for Sirius and Kat's revenge on Peter. When he wasn't looking, Sirius hexed Peter's hair to stand straight up in the back, and Kat shot a charm to untie his shoes.

As they pulled up to the school, James opened the door and motioned for Lily to go through, "After you Sweetums," James cooed while batting his eyelashes at Lily.

"Stuff it, Potter." Lily said as she got out of the carriage, and at the same time Peter fell out of the other side due to his hexed shoelaces.

"Come on Prongsie, why did you have to start that right away? The poor girl can't have a moment's rest without you making some ridiculous comment," Sirius scolded. "Besides, don't use 'Sweetums.' You have to use things like, 'Beautiful,' or 'Lovely,' instead of making her sound like food. Girls hate that! But I can't for the life of me figure out why! I would want to be called a food! It would be an honor! I'd want to be… ummm…"

"Okay Padfoot, you keep thinking about that, and the rest of us will step away from you so you can dig deep into that terrifying pit you call a brain, so we don't get hurt when it explodes from being over-worked," James taunted.

"Alright, alright." Sirius welcomed the challenge. "So if my brain is a terrifying pit, then yours must be… a…" Sirius scrunched his forehead in deep thought.

"See? See what I mean? Lily beautiful, we better get away from that guy, he's a ticking time bomb I tell you!" James shielded Lily from Sirius.

"Honestly Potter! If you keep this up I swear on my life I will—"

"You'll do what Ms. Evans?" Lily, winced, then slowly turned and looked up to see Professor Dumbledore staring inquisitively at her with a slight smile. Dumbledore was a tall lanky man, with a silver beard that touched mid-stomach. He had radiant crystal blue eyes that held authority in them, yet still retained a childlike joy. Dumbledore often reminded Lily of a little boy stuck in an older man's body, for Dumbledore was amused by the small joys in life. She also thought that, since he was their Headmaster, this was a really good thing. "Or you'll do what exactly, Ms. Evans?" Dumbledore repeated, this time with a raised eyebrow and a slightly larger smile on his face.

"Oh. Um, nothing Professor." Lily felt her face heat up.

"Alright then. Ms. Evans, Mr. Potter, I shall need to see you _immediately_ after the feast in my office. Do not go to your common room, but come straight to my office. The password is…" Dumbledore leaned in close so only the two of them could hear, "Pepper-Imps. Mr. Potter, I trust you know where the entrance is. Now go on to dinner and hand these out to the prefects." Dumbledore handed both Lily and James a small stack of mini-parchments.

Lily stood there afraid to move. "Off to dinner we shall go! The feast of course will be well worth the wait. I'm really looking forward to the steak and kidney pie. Let's move then!" Dumbledore exclaimed as he turned on his heel for the Great Hall calling, "Hup! Two, Three, Four, Hup! Two, Three, Four," all the way down the corridor.

Together in Dumbledore's wake, Lily, James, and their sniggering friends, all made their way to the Great Hall. Lily wondered to herself what it was she did in a past life to have deserved someone like James to ruin her life. It was the first day of school, and she was already in trouble. She dreaded what the rest of the year would look like, if she didn't put a stop to it.

James must have noticed Lily's anger and towards him because he didn't say a word to her. Nor did he make a single joke with Sirius. Sirius, Kat, and Peter, on the other hand kept laughing at the pair of them. And Remus and Ali, at least had the dignity to hold their laughter in. But Lily and James walked in silence to the Great Hall until the buzzing of excited students reached their ears and continued to grow louder with each step.

Without a word, Lily and James began passing out the pieces of parchment Dumbledore had just handed them. To each prefect, they handed a parchment containing the password to that prefect's house. Lily worked quickly and efficiently, while James often held the parchment above the prefects head, or made them answer a riddle before he gave them their password.

As soon as they were finished, Dumbledore's voice arose above the excited noise of the students back in school. "Welcome! Welcome!" he began. "Welcome to yet another year at Hogwarts. Please stay seated as the sorting takes place. Then I promise we will eat, as I know all of you are as anxious as I."

With the tail end of his sentence, the first years made their first voyage into the Great Hall led by the enormous Hagrid. Each tiny student that walked through the doors looked more frightened than the one before. Lily couldn't help but smile when she saw little girls nervously looking at their shoes, and then bumping into the next student. And she watched as the boys, who were trying to look confident, pointed out the ceiling and banners, and then also bumped into the next student in front of them. She remembered her eleven year old self. Her mother had insisted on buying her robes a few inches too long because, "I'm sure you will grow so much this year." Lily's parents were both about six feet tall, and they had expected Lily to grow tall just like them. So, Lily trudged her way into the Great Hall, tripping over her oversized robes, every other step.

"Come, come! Don't be shy!" Dumbledore smiled. "We don't bite! Well, hard anyway," he joked. But as soon as he saw the horrified looks that had just flitted across the first years' faces, Dumbledore hurriedly covered, "It was a joke! Only joking, I promise." He said with a chuckle.

After about ten minutes of sorting the first years, Dumbledore stood up and announced, "I have two words for you…Tuck in!" With that, countless platters of Hogwarts' fine cooking appeared on the house tables. Lily could see every dish she had ever eaten in her entire life on the Gryffindor table; chicken dishes, steaks, soups, pastas, sandwiches including grilled cheese, hot pot, an assortment of steamed and creamed and roasted vegetables, meat pies, fruit pies, pudding pies, and to Lily's delight, ice cream.

The Marauders ate so much that the plates which were unfortunately within their arms' length, had to keep refilling themselves every few minutes. Just between Sirius and James, a small third world country could have been sustained with all the food they ate.

During the meal, Lily and her two best friends caught up on the rest of their summer vacations, agonized over their upcoming N.E.W.T. level classes, and reminisced about the first time they had all talked and became friends. All of them had been very nervous just like the new first years they had just seen sorted. But it was only the three of them in a dorm together, so they had to talk sooner or later. They had bonded over their excitement and bewilderment of their opposite worlds. Lily questioned Kat and Ali excessively about the magical world, and Kat and Ali wanted to know everything about the life of a Muggle. Lily's new friends had even taken time to teach her a few easy spells. Lily was very thankful because they made Lily feel so much more comfortable about starting lessons. In preparation she had read most of her books before the term started, and asked Severus to show her a few things, but she knew there was still so much more for her to learn.

Finally, after about five minutes of the Marauders being the only ones still eating, Dumbledore called for silence again. "I would like to make a few announcements before we adjourn for the night. First years, and a few of our older students," Dumbledore's good-natured eyes flashed in the direction of the Marauders, "please note that the Forbidden Forest is out of bounds. Even I am unsure of what creatures may lie within its harbor." Dumbledore allowed for a little chatter to break out about the terrifying possibilities lying in the forest, but he soon motioned for quiet again.

"Prefects, you now have your passwords. Please guide the younger students safely to your house dormitories. Remember, you have patrolling duties as well." Dumbledore reminded.

"My last announcement, and perhaps the most important, may not make sense to those of us with our ears opened and our minds closed. So please take a moment, to pry open the doors to your minds, and the doors to your hearts." Lily was surprised at the Headmaster's strange directions, and though she followed his direction, she looked around in confusion. It seemed like she was the only one doing as she was told, and that every single student was simply too confused to follow instruction. Minus the Slytherins, who did not seem confused in the slightest, but whom were just flat out ignoring their Headmaster.

After a few moments pause, Dumbledore looked up and resumed speaking. "There are unfortunate dark happenings occurring in our magical community. They affect every one of us. But I ask that while we are here at school, we band together and unite against this darkness." Dumbledore now stood so the power of his words stopped even the Slytherins from talking. "We are a school together. We study together. We learn together. We eat together. We live together. And we should open our hearts together. Yes, we are four houses, but we are one school. I am Hogwarts, you are Hogwarts. We are all Hogwarts."

Still struck by the sudden seriousness of his speech, Lily was frozen and could not react. It wasn't until someone started clapping, that she snapped out of her trance and joined in.

"And now," the Headmaster continued, beaming at them all, "let us all stand and join in the traditional school song!" Dumbledore flicked his wand and a thin golden ribbon flew out and twisted itself to reveal the lyrics to the school song. "Everyone, join in with your favorite tune, and sing at the top of your lungs!"

_"Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hoggy Warty Hogwarts,  
Teach us something please,  
Whether we be old and bald  
Or young with scabby knees,  
Our heads could do with filling  
With some interesting stuff,  
For they've bare and full of air,  
Dead flies and bits of fluff,  
So teach us things worth knowing,  
Bring back what we've forgot,  
Just do your best, we'll do the rest,  
And learn until our brains all rot."_

(A/N: Song from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone)

Not one person in the whole hall finished at the same time. Dumbledore gleefully conducted until the Marauders finished their singing to the "Death Day" tune, dragging the tempo slower and slower, shouting the words as loud and as long as they could, and sustaining the last "rot" in a competition of lung power.

As soon as Sirius, the Marauder who held the last note the longest, stopped singing and everyone stopped laughing, including the Headmaster himself, Dumbledore concluded, "Now let's all have one last big sleep before we must begin our studies. Check the board in your common rooms daily for important announcements. Have fun tomorrow, and sleep tight!"

"DON'T LET THE BED BUGS BITE!" yelled the Marauders causing everyone, but the Slytherins, to laugh one last time before following their house prefects to their rooms.

"Lily, should we go now?" James asked.

"Huh?" Lily was momentarily confused, her mind still on the cryptic speech Dumbledore had given. "Oh, yeah." Lily bade her friends goodnight, telling them not to wait up for her since she didn't know how long she'd be.

"Ready to go m'lady?" James asked, offering his arm.

Lily went for his arm as if to take it, but elbowed him in the ribs and whispered, "In your dreams." she said with a smile. But the joke didn't have the effect Lily intended. Instead of wincing in pain, he looked at her from behind his glasses, his eyes filled with something she could not pinpoint. So she started walking and changed the subject. "What did you think of Dumbledore's speech?"

"It was very mysterious. I wonder what he was trying to tell us."

"Or what he was trying to warn us about. Sticking together as a whole school?"

"You mean, be friends with the Slytherins?" James scoffed. "Right."

"Do you know where Professor Dumbledore's office is?"

"Of course! Don't you?" James asked.

"No, I've never been there," Lily said.

"You've never been to Dumbledore's office?"

"When did you go there?" Lily asked.

"I've been there loads of times. Once when Sirius and I put 'Super Slippy Slimy Solution' on all the broom handles of the Slytherins," he laughed at the memory. "And once when we got caught dueling in the astronomy tower. I really thought we would get expelled for that one."

Lily should have known it was for causing trouble. "Well, no wonder I haven't been there. I don't mindlessly cause trouble to exert my dominance over others," she said.

"Oh yeah," James ruffled his hair. "Sorry, Lils, I forgot you weren't a troublemaker. Here we are! Pepper Imps." James said to a stone gargoyle.

Lily almost yelped in surprise as the very solid looking gargoyle answered, "If you say so. Although I much prefer Peppermint Humbugs or Butterscotch Bubbles." Then the black stone gargoyle jumped sideways along the wall to reveal a hidden staircase. "Will you tell him that when you're up there? He never listens to me."

"Sure thing, Herbert," James replied, saluting the gargoyle as he passed.

James motioned for Lily to go ahead of him up the spiraling staircase. At the top, there was a beautiful oak door with a gold plaque in the center with "Headmaster: Professor Albus B. W. Dumbledore" engraved in loopy script. Lily reached for the doorknob, but the door opened slightly before she even touched the handle, as if it knew she was coming.

James chuckled at her, and Lily guessed that the door opening must be a normal thing for Professor Dumbledore's office.

"Don't be shy," Dumbledore called to them from inside the office. "Come in."

* * *

_**A big "Thank You" to Heather of the Feathers and exdiva55giantsfan for your reviews :)**_  
_**If anyone else out there is reading this story, and you have any thoughts about it, whatsoever, know that I really do care about my readers, fellow authors, and your opinions.**_

So if you could help me to help you, I'd appreciate any words you have to offer.  
Thank you so much for reading!  
~MissChievous


	4. 04: The Past

_**It's MissChievous13 here again ^_^  
Things have been really busy with holidays and traveling, but I haven't forgotten about the story, or you :)  
**__**Thank you so much to those remarkable readers who have taken a few minutes to write me a review.  
Every time I read one, I get a great big smile on my face. Thank you so much!  
Your comments help me so much!  
To those readers who haven't yet reviewed, I would really like to hear from you.  
**__**Whether positive or otherwise, your opinions and thoughts are genuinely important to me.  
I hope you enjoy this next chapter :)**_

* * *

**Chapter 4- The Past**

Lily pushed the door open the rest of the way and gasped. The ceiling was arched high in a dome with a circular window at the middle where Lily imagined light poured through in the middle of the day when the sun was high in the sky. There were tables and shelves covered in different silver objects; some with spindly legs, some with pointy protuberances, and others that would look at home in a board game. There was a stone basin decorated in ancient runes. A phoenix was sitting on a perch close to a large oak desk. There was a fireplace and more books than Lily could count scattered around the room. But the most striking of all the objects in the room, were the pictures on the walls. Each picture had a name and a date at the bottom of it. Lily noticed that they were all pictures of past Headmasters and Headmistresses, who all started gossiping excitedly as Lily and James entered the room.

"Oh look, it's the Potter boy again." A particularly proper looking witch said as she looked down her nose through her spectacles.

"Yes, first day of school, and he's already in trouble," chuckled the witch's friend, who looked much friendlier.

"Quite so, but who is the girl?" asked a very old looking wizard.

"You can all be quiet now, or I shall have to move you next to Sir Codagan's picture," Dumbledore chuckled. All the pictures silenced themselves at once, except for the one right behind Dumbledore's desk.

"You wouldn't do that Headmaster," the picture sneered.

"Oh, really, Phineas?" Dumbledore challenged.

"Alright, fine," said the picture. The wizard in this picture looked slightly familiar. He had jet black hair and menacing stare. Lily read the words at the bottom of the picture, "Phineas Nigellus."

Professor Dumbledore first turned his crystalline blue eyes towards James. "I understand that you've had a rough summer." James nodded. "My condolences."

Lily watched the scene, not understanding what Professor Dumbledore was talking about.

"But, I trust that you are ready to take on your responsibilities here?"

"Yes, Professor Dumbledore, sir," James nodded.

"Good to hear it. Now, Ms. Evans, Mr. Potter," Dumbledore interrupted Lily's questioning thoughts, as he motioned for them to take a seat in front of him. "I suppose you are wondering why I called you here." Dumbledore began. Both Lily and James nodded their heads yes. Dumbledore proceeded, "I have called you here to discuss your living quarters. As you know, Voldemort has been slowly rising for the past seven years, and I have reason to believe that he has recently recruited a significant amount of followers. His power is increasing at a dangerous rate." Neither Lily nor James spoke, "Even so, it is customary for the Head Boy and Head Girl to help the teachers and myself if any trouble breaks out."

"Are you saying there's trouble now, sir?" Lily asked.

"No Ms. Evans, not yet." Dumbledore said with a sad smile. "But because of this threat, the staff and I feel that the Head Boy and Head Girl need to be close enough to contact within seconds if there is ever any trouble. We wish we wouldn't have to do this, but with the attacks increasing and Voldemort rising, we feel it is necessary for the security of the students and the school. Therefore, in order to increase security, yet provide each of you with your privacy, we have decided that beginning this year and ending as soon as Voldemort is stopped, the Head Boy and Head Girl will have their own small dorm."

Blinking her eyes in an attempt to wake herself from what was obviously a horrific nightmare, Lily shook her head. "But…but…" she stuttered in disbelief. She looked to her fellow Head for some reinforcement, but James' face had more of a "This is too good to be true!" look than an outraged "How on earth could this be a good idea" look.

"I'm sorry Ms. Evans, but the decision is final. There will be a small common room for the two of you to share. You will each of course have your own bedroom and your own small bathroom. In the event of an attack, there will be a short passageway from your living quarters to my office. It can be used at anytime if there is ever an emergency."

"Professor, are you sure about this… I mean—"

"Ms. Evans, I trust that you and Mr. Potter are mature enough to handle this situation. I promise, it is nothing against either of you, and it is not intended as a punishment, but it is a precaution for the school as a whole." Dumbledore continued as he rose from his seat. "The entrance to your dorm is just in fact one story above my office beneath the picture of Sir and Lady Zanath of Edinburgh. I'm sure you will have no trouble finding it." Dumbledore said with a look at James.

"Professor? What is the password?" James asked.

"Oh! Right, I almost forgot. The password is Sweet Tarts." Dumbledore smiled seeing the amused face of Lily turn to him. "Yes, I know. They are a muggle candy which I have grown quite fond of." Dumbledore then motioned them to stand up, "Well, I trust you both are tired and need your rest. First day of classes tomorrow! I wouldn't want you to fall asleep! Off you go then."

"Good night, Professor Dumbledore," Lily and James said at the same time, one in a state of overall horror, and the other instilled with a new hope for the start of the new year.

"Mr. Potter, Ms. Evans, good night." The door swung shut behind the school's newest roommates.

After a couple minutes of walking in quiet with her new roommate leading the way, Lily broke the silence, "What on earth were they thinking? Have they _completely_ lost their minds?"

"No offense meant, Lils, but I think Dumbledore knows what he is doing. I mean, he is one of the smartest people alive _and_ one of the most amazing wizards ever to have lived," James reasoned. "I think we should trust his judgment, don't you?

Lily was shocked by James' reasoning. She stuttered a little and finally said, "I think that's the most intelligent thing I've ever heard you say. I suppose we should trust him, but it doesn't make me happy with his decision. He probably laughed when he knew we would be Head Girl and Boy. I mean it's not exactly a secret that we can't _stand_ each other." Lily smirked.

James sighed, "Wrong again, Lily. It's you that can't stand me, but I get along with you just fine." James paused, took a deep breath as if he were steeling himself, ruffled his hair and said, "In fact, I think you are intelligent, beautiful, and great company. I can't think of anyone else that I would rather have as Head with me." James grinned sheepishly.

Cursing her fair skin and her mother's genes, Lily felt a blush spread across her cheeks. "Potter, you really need to stop with all of the lies. It's not healthy for a person to constantly be in such a deep state of untruthfulness." Lily said with a sarcastic air, hoping she was able to cover up that she was just a little bit flattered by him. "Really, I wouldn't be surprised if your heart was completely shattered from all of the lies you tell."

"Oh Lily, when will you learn. The only stroke of untruthfulness I have in me is whenever I pull a prank," James explained. "Other than that, I tell people what I honestly think of them." He finished with a smile

"Unless of course, the prank is that you pretend to tell someone what you think of them to only make them feel like a fool in the end, right?" Lily retorted. "Do you see what I mean? You can never tell if you're telling the truth of just pulling another prank."

Now it was James' turn to stutter. "I guess I hadn't thought about that. But, even though you won't believe me, what I say about you is how I truly feel. Sweet Tarts!" James spoke the password in front of the picture of Sir and Lady Zanath.

Lily rolled her eyes and said, "Okay Potter, you rationalize however you want, but I'm sorry, I'm not falling for it." She turned to see that their entrance was not exactly like their Gryffindor Common Room, where the picture swung like a door. Instead, the picture pushed backwards a couple feet to reveal a hidden staircase leading under and behind the wall. What was more striking, was the couple in the picture itself. Lily had heard of Sir and Lady Zanath in History of Magic. They were famous for starting aid organizations for poor and sick muggles. But she had not seen a picture of them until this moment. The man was tall and thin with black hair. His posture demanded attention. But Lily thought that if you put glasses on him, he might very well look like the boy next to her. And the woman, had dark red hair that reached to her waist. Though Lady Zanath's hair was very curly, and her eyes were round instead of almond shaped like Lily's, the two resembled each other too much for Lily's comfort.

James was unaffected by the picture and trounced down the stairs two by two reprising the Hogwarts School Song.

"By the way, what was the Headmaster talking about? You had a rough summer?" Lily followed James down the steps. "You got caught pulling a prank?"

As she waited for James's answer, she took stock of her new shared living quarters. There were two small two-seater sofas which were perpendicular to each other. One of the dark red velvety sofas was in front of the fire and its twin was on the left. There were also two squashy red and gold patterned armchairs on the other side of the fireplace. There was a table with two chairs behind the couch on which a piece of parchment was placed. James snatched it before Lily had a chance.

"Dumbledore says that the passage to his office is just over there behind that bookcase. All you have to do is say…" James stopped.

"Say what?" Lily asked, wanting him to tell her quickly so she could take a shower before they had to patrol. "Come on, spit it out already!"

"Asphodelus Albus?"

"Okay, and what's so strange about Asphodelus Albus?"

"Ass," James howled with uncontrollable laughter, "and Albus in the same sentence! _Ass-_phodelus Albus! What in the world is that anyways?"

"Wow, how old are you? It's the name of a plant. We've used it before in potions. Don't you remember anything from class?"

"Ass!" James gasped through his fit. "Albus! Why would he choose something like that?"

"Maybe so you would actually remember it!" Lily shouted over James' out of control laughter. She rolled her eyes and proceeded up to her bedroom, dreading the point in the future when James might actually have to use the password.

As she climbed the stairs she let herself laugh a little when she heard James yell, "You said 'ass'!" through his fits of laughter.

Her door was to the right at the top of the staircase. It was a beautiful mahogany door with a silver plaque which resembled the one Dumbledore had on his door, except that Lily's said "Head Girl: Lily Evans" in the same loopy cursive. Lily opened the door and was genuinely surprised by the room. Unlike the usual dorm rooms, this room looked like it had been personalized just for her, Lily Evans. The walls were her favorite soft apple green, and the bed was covered in beautiful forest green sheets with white embroidered flowers along the edges. It was still a four-poster canopy bed with matching hangings around it, but it was a full-sized bed, instead of the regular twin size.

Just like every year before this one, Lily's things been brought up to her room, with her owl Scarlett in her cage on Lily's new nightstand. She removed her shoes and walked across the soft delightfully plushy carpet to let her owl out of her cage. Then she squished over to the window to let Scarlett out to go to the Owlery. There was a knock at the door, and Lily turned to see James in her doorway, tiptoeing the line between the dark red landing carpet and her's.

"Hey Lily, when are we—Wow! Cool bed!" Lily stood frozen at the window with her mouth hanging open, as James ran and jumped onto her bed with all the reckless abandon of a child. Careful not to hit his head on the canopy, James began jumping. "Wow! I'm going to invite Sirius in here just so we can jump on your bed! This is loads of fun! You should try it!" James called to Lily.

"Potter! Get off my bed!" Lily screamed. "And what do you think you're doing in my room? Get out!"

Looking like the Quidditch World Cup had been canceled, James hopped off the bed, and made his way to his own room. Then he turned, stuck his tongue out at Lily and bolted into his room to avoid the pillow she launched at his head.

About twenty minutes later, Lily came down the stairs, finally showered, and sat on the couch with a book, intending to wait for James, but finding that he was already there. "Ready to go, love?" James asked.

"Who are you talking to?" Lily asked innocently.

"You of course!"

"Who? It can't be me because I'm not your love. And there's no one else in this room, so your love is yourself?"

"Ouch, Evans. I do not have conversations with myself." James announced. "Yes, you do! No, I don't! Yes, you do! No, I don't!" James fought with himself.

Lily couldn't help but giggle at James's utter stupidity and began walking out of the room. "Are you both coming?" Lily shouted back at James who was still arguing with himself.

James flashed her his million-Galleon smile and chased her up entrance stairs into the deserted corridor. But once they got into the public scene of the hallway, Lily's laughter felt awkward, so she stopped and went into Head Girl mode.

Together they walked in silence, keeping eyes out for unusual things and enjoying the feeling of being back inside the walls of Hogwarts.

"Evans, can I ask you a question and you'll answer honestly?"

"Sure. There you go, you asked a question, and I answered honestly," Lily grinned. They were now roaming the corridors on the second floor, making sure no students were out of bed and all was well within the school.

"Ha, ha, very funny," James cracked. "Seriously, will you answer the question I have after this one?" James asked her again, this time carefully choosing the wording of his question.

"I guess," Lily replied. She believed in always telling the truth, but then she remembered that this was James Potter, and she added, "Well, depending upon the nature of the question."

"Okay," James braced himself, "Why have you never given me a chance? I mean ever since first year, it's as if you never liked me. As if you hated me right away. I just wanted to know what it was that I did that's caused you to hate me so much."

Lily was not expecting this question or anything like it for that matter. She was expecting him to simply ask her out again. So, she couldn't think of a good excuse not to answer the question. "You really want to know the truth, Potter?" Lily asked, and James nodded his head yes. "Do you remember our first year? I mean all of it? It was right after the Welcome Feast, and Malfoy started fighting with me in the Entrance Hall. You and Sirius not only jinxed my best friend, but you acted like I was a baby. Like I couldn't take care of myself. Like I was some weak newborn kitten in need of your protection."

"Lily, they were going to hex you from behind."

"I don't know what you think you saw, but Severus would never do that to me. He was my only link to the magical world before coming to Hogwarts, and he was my best friend."

"Well he wasn't exactly nice to me either."

"You mean, he wasn't nice to you after you insulted and embarrassed him in front of the whole school? Jee, I wonder why that was." Lily could feel her temper rising to a dangerous point, the way it did every time they discussed Severus. So she tried to take a breath and calm herself. "The point is, I think that Severus and I would still be best friends, if you hadn't treated him so terribly," and now her eyes started to tear like they did every time she thought about her lost friendship.

"Lily," James began in an annoyingly comforting tone, "he worships the dark arts and is on his way to becoming a Death Eater. Somewhere inside you know that."

"How dare you!" Her temper reached its boiling point in an instant. "Severus is a decent guy! He's just lost now, and he needs a friend! But I can't be his friend anymore thanks to you and your stupid bullying! Thanks to you, he thinks I am his enemy!"

"But if he's on Voldemort's side, he is your enemy," James persisted.

Lily whipped her hair out of her face and fixed James with a stare, her eyes slit with danger, "Just because he is a Slytherin, doesn't mean he is on Voldemort's side."

"Lily, you're so smart, but you can't see what is right in front of you," James frowned.

"What's in front of me is a selfish lying pranking jerk, who has everything he wants handed to him, and is threatened by everything he can't understand." Lily paused to recite the password to the picture at the entrance of their dorm. "You asked me why I never gave you a chance, but I did give you a chance. I gave you a chance and you threw it in a cauldron and torched it, again and again and again. You asked me why I hate you, and now you have your answer." She expected to turn and see a hurt James Potter staring back at her with remorse etched into every pore of his skin, instead, she turned to see a James Potter with pity and sympathy in his eyes.

"I'm trying to help you see the truth about Snape before it's too late and you get hurt. I never want to see you get hurt," James pleaded.

"I. Don't. Need. Your. Help." she said through gritted teeth. Then she walked down the stairs and didn't stop or breathe until she reached the safety of her new bedroom.

Throwing herself onto her bed, Lily's thoughts spiraled out of control. They twisted and turned touching on every corner of her mind. They were so tangled she couldn't sit still, so she began pacing her bedroom. She went from hating James, to being thankful that he saved her, to feeling sorry that she never heard him out, to being so angry that she had lost Severus because of him. Severus. He needed her. He needed her help. He was going down a dangerous path, and she could pull him out, but he wouldn't take her hand. He believed that she was on James' side.

Lily remembered the time in their fifth year when James had mercilessly tortured Severus. She had not come to his aid that time because he had called her a "Mudblood," and told her that he didn't need her help. Lily felt so hurt by him. She was so angry that she backed off, leaving James to taunt Severus in the cruelest way yet. Since that day, their relationship had been rocky at best. She tried to talk to Severus. She tried to explain that she wasn't siding with James, but that he had hurt her. She apologized again and again, but he never said sorry, and she didn't understand why. Often, she would still catch Severus looking at her with an expression the very opposite of his hateful words. And every time they did talk, all he would say was she should just go be with Potter, since she had already chosen him. Potter.

Lily plopped herself back on the bed. What was she going to do about Potter. She was up and down, and right and left, and backwards and sideways and up-side-down-ways. Sometimes he could be as sweet and innocent as a little puppy, but most times he was as dumb as Malfoy. Although she outwardly maintained that she liked James no better than acromantulas, she was extremely conflicted inside. She didn't like him, but she didn't hate him. But now, she was starting to understand his point of view. He had just been trying to help her. Even if Severus hadn't been ready to hex her, Malfoy probably would have. She should be thankful to him for that but-

Lily heard a knock on her door. She went and opened it to see James on the other side of the door. He was holding a toothbrush and wearing red, flannel, pajama pants and no shirt. Forcibly, Lily dragged her eyes away from his flat stomach, up to his face.

"Uhm, Lily?" James asked looking at her as if she were about to fall over.

"Huh? Sorry, I'm just a little- what do you want?"

"I was wondering if you had some toothpaste I could borrow. I sort of forgot to pack mine," James said squinting his face. "Sorry, to bother you—"

"I have some in the bathroom, hold on." Lily went to retrieve the toothpaste, and she heard James.

"Wow! Your room is way different than mine. I've got red walls that actually sort of match the color of your hair." he ended slowly.

Lily handed James the toothpaste. "Only, you can have the stuff you use. I don't want it back."

"What?" James stopped mid-application.

"You said you wanted to borrow some toothpaste, which means you would have to give it back to me. But I don't want the stuff that was in your mouth back," Lily smirked.

James laughed, "Right, grammar point of the day. Anyways, thanks Lils! You're a lifesaver!" handing the tube back. He was about to walk back to his room, but stopped. "Are those your parents?" James asked, pointing at the picture on her nightstand.

"Yeah, that's mum and dad," Lily responded.

"Wow, you and your mum look so much alike! I've never seen your parents before." James walked across the room to get a better look. "But Lily, I think your picture is broken."

"What? Oh no, did the glass get broken in my trunk?" Lily worried as she grabbed the picture and inspected it. "I don't see anything wrong with it." Lily concluded.

"Well, can't you see? Your parents… they aren't moving. It's like they're just stuck there!" James exclaimed as if it were unheard of.

Lily couldn't help but laugh. "My parents are muggles! Wow, I know we learned that in Muggles Studies. You really don't remember much from classes. Remind me how you became Head Boy?"

"Umm…no… uh. Maybe I fell asleep that day or something. No matter," James shrugged, his clear eyes no longer on the picture but on Lily's face. She smiled, embarrassed by the look in his eyes for the second time today.

"Anyways," Lily shook her head breaking their eye contact. "Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever seen your parents either."

"Well, I think I have a picture of them in my room if you want to see."

"Sure, why not?" Lily agreed. She followed James into his bedroom and had to do a double take when she saw the color of his walls. When James was bent over his bag, looking for his picture, Lily put a bit of her hair on the wall, and found that the walls were in fact the exact shade of dark red as her hair. She straightened up when James turned around and handed her a small photo album.

"Here you go. You can look at that, I'm just going to go brush my teeth before my toothpaste melts off."

Lily took the album and sat on James' bed, turning from one page to the next. James looked just like his dad, and Lily chuckled to herself seeing that the crazy hair must be hereditary. His mother was beautiful. She had long wavy black hair and James' hazel eyes. But Lily was surprised by the fact that both of James' parents looked to be as old as her grandparents. Just then James sat next to Lily on his bed looking over her shoulder at the pictures.

"That one was taken when my parents went to the Ministry of Magic in America. I was in fifth year at the time. Instead of taking me along, they left me with the crazy neighbor," James recalled shaking his head.

"Why was your neighbor crazy?" Lily asked.

"She loved pigs. She collected them. All the towels, pictures, dishes, wallpaper, even the toilet paper holder, was covered in pigs. Then she bought a real pig."

"That is crazy," Lily agreed.

"That's not even the craziest part." James laughed, "She dressed it in toddler clothes and called it 'Baby'. Pushed it in a baby stroller everywhere she went." Lily laughed along with him. "And then, she would have me ask 'Baby' questions, and she would use spells to make it look like 'Baby' was answering," James let out a deep warm chuckle that made Lily's face feel warm.

Lily continued flipping through the pictures and noticed that Sirius was in a lot of them. "You and Sirius must be real good friends. He's in almost all of the pictures." Lily giggled. But then she realized that James was staring at her instead of at the pictures. "Potter?"

_"_Huh? Sorry, I was listening," James shook his head.

"I said that Sirius is in almost as many pictures as you are."

"Oh yeah. He basically lives with us because he hates his family." James explained. "His family is really into dark magic, and Sirius…well Sirius obviously isn't. And when his parents found out he was put in Gryffindor, it pretty much finalized their disownment of him."

"That's awful! I never knew that," Lily said. James did not elaborate on the subject, so Lily continued paging through the pictures. She got to a particularly funny picture of James' dad holding him upside down and was laughing again. "How come your parents look so old? Do you have a thirty year old brother or sister that I've never heard about?"

James hesitated. Lily watched his face as she waited for his answer, and she noticed it had lost its usual assured arrogance, "They are a lot older than most parents. They had me late in their lives, I guess you could say." Lily opened her mouth to ask just how late, but James cut her off. "Umm…Lily?" James rubbed the back of his head. Lily closed her mouth. "It's almost 2:30am. Maybe we should get some sleep." James informed her, though he looked as if the suggestion of sleep was causing him pain.

"Wow, where did all the time go? See you tomorrow," Lily said as she handed James the album. James followed her to the door. And when Lily reached her own door, she turned and said, "Good night, Potter," feeling a genuine smile on her face.

"Good night, Lily," James responded. "Sweet dreams," James added, and as she closed her door, she thought she heard him whisper, "Love," but after a second, she couldn't be sure it was real.

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_**Thank you so much for reading this chapter :)  
I'd really like to know what you think about it.  
I'm not asking to boost numbers or confidence or anything like that.  
Your thoughts and opinions really matter to me, and they help shape me as a writer as well as my writing.  
So, thank you so much, in advance, for writing me a few of your thoughts.  
THANK YOU!**_

_**~MissChievous13 **_


	5. 05: The Other Side

_**Hello ^_^**_

_**Thank you so much, Tiva-Babe UK, Goldpen, and lisa! You are super-cool mega-awesome for taking the time to submit reviews!  
Thank you for your encouraging words. I really appreciate it! :D**_

_**Here's the next chapter. And please, let me know what you think!**_

_**~MissChievous13 ^_^**_

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**Chapter 5- The Other Side**

"Lily? Lily! LILY!"

"Jeez, Potter! What the hell do you want?" Lily yelled groggily as she sat up in her bed.

"I just wanted to let you know that there's about half an hour left in breakfast," James said, fiddling with his round-rimmed glasses.

"What?" Lily jumped out of bed. "Oh, thanks," she said a little more calmly as she began to 'shoo' him out the door. "I've got to get ready!" She snapped the door shut and changed her clothes, grabbed her wand, shoved the necessarry books into bag, touched up her conservative make-up, and sprinted down to breakfast.

Lily spotted Kat and Ali near the Marauders and plopped down across from them. "Hey girls." Lily said.

"Hey Lily," Ali began. "How are you so late? You were already gone when we woke up. You've only got, five minutes before we need to start walking."

"Lily! Slow down before you hurt yourself or someone else!" Kat said giggling. "You do know that you can carry some of that food with you in your _hands_, don't you?" Lily couldn't respond because multiple pieces of dried toast were restricting the movement of her mouth. Kat laughed at her, "Here's your schedule, but we have pretty much the same classes anyways. Except this afternoon, where I'm sure you'll be all alone with the Marauders."

Lily looked at her schedule, and saw that again, her classes began at 8:00am, which for Lily had been the case every year of her schooling. She had never gotten her break first period, but she saw that today she was done by 3:40pm. Each class was an hour and 15 minutes long with a ten minute passing period. Today she had:

8:00am – 9:15am: Herbology  
9:25am – 10:40am: Transfiguration  
10:50am – 12:05pm: Transfiguration  
12:05pm – 12:55pm: Lunch  
1:00pm – 2:15pm: Defense against the Dark Arts  
2:25pm – 3:40pm: Defense against the Dark Arts

"Wow, easy day today!" Lily announced surprised. "Great classes, don't you think?" Lily asked her friends.

"Yup!" said a voice from behind. "We're in a-a-a-a-a-all the same classes!" James informed her. James and Lily had been in the same classes since their first year. James, of course, being completely infatuated with Lily, and being a Marauder, dug around fifth year and asked Lily's friends what classes she was trying to get an O.W.L. in, so that he could see her all the time. Lily wormed it out of her friends what James had done, but by that time, it was too late to change plans.

Lily looked up at him and said, "What a surprise that is." James of course took this positively, smiled and walked away. Lily turned back to her friends to see one smirking and one astonished face. "What? Why are you looking at me like that? Do I have a flobberworm in my hair or something?" Lily felt her hair with a worried look.

"Lily, are you feeling alright?" Kat put her hand up to Lily's forehead.

"Yeah," Ali added looking worried. "I think maybe we should get you to the hospital wing."

"What are you talking about? You're acting as if I've done something horrible!" Lily laughed. "What on earth are you two thinking?"

"You… you're… well you…" Ali tried but looked unsure as how best to state it.

"You didn't rip off James Potter's head!" Kat finally exclaimed. "It's almost as if you don't completely loathe him!" Kat's eyes were as wide as sand dollars.

"Yeah!" Ali exclaimed finally finding her voice. Then her next words were really quiet. Lily had to strain her ears to hear her. "It's almost like the opposite. Not that that's a problem, but it's as if you like—"

"WHAT?" Lily exclaimed so loud that whatever students were left lagging in the Great Hall turned their heads to stare at the girl whose voice just echoed across the Great Hall.

"Okay Lily, chill. It was just an observation," she said in an aggravatingly calm voice.

"Oh my gosh! We need to go!" Kat interjected. The three girls jumped up and headed for the greenhouses.

"No! You tell me right now Miss Aliena Megan Short! What could possibly drive you to say such a stupid and completely untrue thing?" Lily chased after her friends who had begun almost running across the grassy hills. It was a good thing the three of them were in Herbology together, otherwise Lily would have followed her friends right to the wrong class in her fit of rage. "I mean, sure I didn't yell at him, but I wasn't exactly nice! If I was nice, then you could start having these delusions."

"Lily, just calm down, okay? She didn't—" Kat pleaded.

"Kat! Just—" Lily began, but cut off abruptly as soon as she realized where she was. Class had not yet begun, but seeing as it was the first day, students were already sitting in their seats around the large, center, grimy, dirt caked table. Everyone stopped talking and waited to hear what Lily was going to scream next. Embarrassed, Lily took a seat towards the back of the table surprising everyone, as she was usually seated almost on top of Professor Sprout.

Lily had a little difficulty focusing on the lesson in the beginning of class because she was thinking about what her friends had said. Was she really going soft on Potter?

Lily was so upset with her friends that she did not speak to them through almost the entire length of the class in which they were expanding on their knowledge of the magical properties and uses of murtlap. The only time Lily broke her stoic silence was when the Marauders pulled a prank on Jason Finch which involved tripping him and falling into a tub of undiluted murtlap essence which made him numb wherever he was touched. Though she didn't join in the laughter, even Lily had to agree he deserved it. After all, he did stick a murtlap root in the bottle of water Frank Longbottom had been drinking.

"Come on Lily." Ali pleaded. "You can't honestly be mad at me. I mean," Ali hesitated, making Lily grow more impatient. "I mean, unless, I was right?"

"Ali. Will you please, just drop it?" Lily said in a low dangerous voice.

"Fine, fine," and mercifully, Ali gave up.

Transfiguration went along without anymore fights between the three girls. They didn't talk much during the first half of their double period, but during the practical part, they had a great time bad mouthing the Slytherins that were in the class. They were attempting non-verbal transfiguration of a candlestick into liquid wax. One of the Slytherins managed to liquefy the candle stick, but at the same time, propelled it at his partner, resulting in an unwanted face mask. But the fun couldn't last the whole class. Professor McGonagall gave them so much homework to "celebrate" the beginning of classes, that even Lily groaned.

Despite the transfiguration homework, Lily and her friends ate lunch happily together. She made sure she hadn't spoken to or even looked at James Potter, just to get the point across to her friends that she did not like him. Taking a seat opposite her two gossiping friends, she began to serve herself some lunch. But soon, she realized how quiet they were, and when she looked up, she saw Kat whispering in Ali's ear. "Okay you two, spill it. What juicy gossip did you hear this time," Lily asked smiling with a sigh. Kat and Ali were always gossiping with each other.

"Huh? Oh nothing," Kat said unconvincingly, and she stopped whispering to Ali.

"Come on, we never keep anything from each other," Lily smiled trying to convince them to tell her.

"Really, it's nothing," Ali agreed nodding her head.

"Right. So, what classes do you have this afternoon?"

"Arithmancy and double Divination." Kat answered. "Hey, we'll be right back." Kat got up, grabbed Ali from her seat, and pulled her over to where the Marauders were standing, leaving Lily sitting by herself looking puzzled. To Lily's surprise, and confusion, Kat stood on her tip toes, and whispered something in Sirius' ear, which must have been rather interesting seeing as a huge mischievous grin spread across his face.

"Hey Lily," A voice spoke behind her.

"Oh hey, Heath! How is the first day of your third year so far?" Lily asked her brother. She had been so focused on what Kat was doing that she didn't realize his presence.

"Pretty good, actually. I really like Arithmancy. It's a lot more interesting than you told me it would be," Heath said.

"Yeah, it's pretty neat. But, you were always good at mathematics. It wasn't really my thing," Lily said as she gave her brother a soft punch in the arm.

"Hey Heath! Are you going to try out for the Quidditch team?" It was James Potter, captain and chaser on the Gryffindor Quidditch team coming to recruit.

"You mean, you think I should?" Heath asked astonished. "But I'm only a third year!"

"Well, if you're as good a flyer as your sister here, you should have no problem!" James sincerely said with a quick glance at Lily, who had been eating her lunch, but still listening attentively as the boys talked.

"Lily's a good flyer?" Heath said in disbelief. He had never seen his sister on a broomstick before.

"Is she ever! I saw her navigate around 20 students in barely half a minute once." James said in a low voice.

"Holy cricket!"

"Yeah, it was our very first flying lesson. And I've heard, flying skills run in the family," he added.

"Lily," Heath turned to her. "Why aren't you on the team?"

"Never tried out," she said.

"Why?"

"I've been asking her that since our second year," James shook his head. "But maybe I could convince at least one Evans to try out?"

"You don't have to ask me twice. What spots are open?" Heath asked, and Lily laughed at her brother's uncontrollable excitement.

"Well, there's one chaser position open, one beater spot, and the seeker position as well. If you play like your sister, you could be a fantastic chaser. But you're pretty scrawny, so you might be better suited for seeker. How would you like to work on your flying a bit more?" James continued smiling at Heath, but Lily caught him sneaking glances at her.

"I'd love to! But, I don't have a lot of experience. Just the times I've played here at school with Mikey," Heath answered while his excitement disappeared with each second of thought.

"Well, what if I took you out sometime this week? I'll give you a private flying lesson. Try-outs aren't until the weekend after next," James offered and smiled seeing the excitement return to Heath's face.

"You mean that?" Heath asked. James nodded his head. "Woohoo! That would be wicked! How about this weekend?"

"Yeah, that's fine with me. Just let me know what time, and we'll be set." James answered.

"Wow! You're the best! Hey Lily? Can we trade Petunia for James?" Heath asked half serious and half joking, though Lily knew it was more in the ballpark of 95 percent major wishing.

"Nice try, Heath," Lily answered smiling and giggling at the thought.

"Wow, thanks James. I mean, Head Boy, sir," Heath corrected.

"James, is fine," James laughed.

"Well, thanks James!" Heath turned to his sister. "This is almost as cool as the time you made the salt and pepper shakers dance across the table to Petunia," Heath laughed at the memory. "And then the owl dropped the letter right on her bangers and mash!" He shrieked with laughter, and Lily's embarrassed gaze shot in James' direction, praying that he wasn't listening. "I thought she would never stop screaming!"

"Okay, Heath. Time to go to class now," Lily began pushing him towards the doors.

"Thanks, James! See you later, sis," and Heath laughed all the way out the door.

Once again, James looked lost in a happy world only he could see. "You?" James began, shocked. "You? Lily Evans? Pulled a prank?"

"Alright get all of your high and mighty one liners in, but she deserved it. Instead of asking 'Lily' to pass the salt and pepper she asked 'the freckle-faced freak' to pass it."

"Aside from being impressed that you were able to say that so quickly, I agree. She certainly deserved it," James smiled, his face getting stuck in that same blissful look that scared Lily so much.

"Potter? Earth to Potter?" Lily clapped her hands.

"Oh, sorry," James snapped out of his daze.

"Well, now that you've rejoined us, here on earth, I just wanted to let you know that you didn't have to do that for Heath. But, thank you. He really loves flying, but we just can't. You know?"

"Don't worry about it. I want to take him out. He's one of the coolest kids I know!"

Lily giggled. "Well, thanks anyways. You know… maybe you're not so bad after all, Potter." With those words, Lily got up to head to her next class, but caught sight of her two best friends and realized that she was smiling. She rearranged her features into a scowl, shot a malevolent look at James's back, and stalked out of the Great Hall. But as she reached the staircase she heard James' voice chorusing "freckle faced freak" as fast as he could, and she had to smile again.

As she walked into her Defense class she spotted Severus, and automatically went to sit with him, but he broke her glance and turned away from her, and Lily remembered that they weren't friends anymore. Her eyes stung and her throat clenched, but she held her head high and sat at the empty table closest to her. Lily had genuinely hoped that Severus would forgive her so that they could be friends once more in their final year at Hogwarts, but so far it had not happened.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw the Marauders come into the class room. Sirius picked two seats perfect for mischief, so James sat right next to Lily, with Sirius still on James' other side, and Remus on the other side of Sirius. Peter sat a table behind them. Sirius nudged his table closer to Lily, so that James was closer to Lily, and she bet herself that Sirius, Kat, and Ali had come up with some elaborate and ridiculous plan to get her and James together. But Lily had gotten very good at ignoring people she didn't wish to talk to. She'd been practicing ever since she met James Potter.

Double Defense against the Dark Arts was a bit different from years past. The people in the class all chose to take the class instead of taking it because they were required to. Most students in the class were studying to become Aurors. With Voldemort on the rise, the magic community needed as many as they could get. In fact, their Professor had even been one, though now she was taking a short break from her work with the Ministry, "to educate a younger generation".

Professor Trallick was an odd woman. She had curly, black, shoulder-length hair, which had begun to sparkle with threads of silver. Her eyes were a dark grey blue. She talked about herself for a short while; she had been trading between fighting and teaching for many years. Her teaching record consisted of short stints at many different schools, and yes, she had obviously had to kill people in her line of work as a result of the dark times they were in.

Professor Trallick began class by asking the students to take out their books. As she did, she knocked her own book off the podium just as she gestured her students to open them to page three. Professor Trallick was very clumsy, but Lily felt that she was going to be an exceptional teacher.

The class went smoothly, and pretty soon, the ten minute break was before them. "Okay class. Stand up, converse, use the loo, but be back in ten minutes to begin the 'hands on' portion of class," Professor Trallick announced, as she knocked over a candle in her arm's length.

"Wow! She's a really great teacher," Lily said as she turned to James, only to find that both James, glasses askew, and Sirius were drooling on their books where the class had just been reading. Finding this both amusing and disgusting all at the same time, Lily, very carefully, took out every single book in her bag, which was a substantial amount seeing as she didn't have time to change books at lunchtime. She piled all of them on top of one another and slammed them as hard as she could onto the table in the space between James' head and Sirius' head.

"WHOA! Honestly woman!" Sirius exclaimed very startled and doing a bad job of hiding it. "Do you always choose to give heart attacks to your fellow students, or do you just hate me because I'm beautiful?" Sirius teased with a girly flip of his hair.

"Ha, ha," Lily replied sarcastically, "I truly wonder how you two don't fail all of your classes. And I still don't understand how you, Potter, managed to be Head Boy!" She turned to James, but suddenly realized he hadn't woken up. In fact, Lily noticed that he wasn't moving at all.

"James?" Lily shook his arm. "Come on, James, wake up. It's break time, you don't have to listen to anymore lecturing." Lily gave a half-hearted laugh. "James?... James!" Lily shook him harder and still no response. Thoughts raced through Lily's head. He would have woken up by now if he was sleeping. Could something have happened? "James wake up!" Lily shouted very near to James' face.

"You're supposed to kiss the sleeping prince," James whispered. Lily was so shocked that she tripped backwards, knocked over a table, and sent a book flying into a nearby set of glass phials. James and Sirius howled with laughter at James's joke, and other students laughed at Lily.

The look on her face must have said it all because James and Sirius stopped mid-laugh upon seeing it. Lily could not find the exact words to describe her extreme embarrassment at having the slightest ounce for James's well being and being made a fool.

"Lily Flower, I'm sorry-"

"Don't you 'Lily Flower' me anything," Lily said in a threatening voice that stopped James where he was. She shoved her hair out of her beet red face, shoved herself to her feet, repaired the phials with her wand, and collected her books. She felt so humiliated she could have cried, but that would have been even more embarrassing, so she struggled with all her might not to.

"Lily, I was only joking around…" James tried to explain absolutely horrified at Lily's reaction. A nervous hand rumpled his hair.

Lily snapped to face James, complete with flaming face and hair, "You are still the world's biggest toerag," she said, trying to whisper, so the whole class wouldn't be brought into their fight. She picked up her books and moved to the table furthest away.

Sirius was the first to break the silence with his usual way of coping with things: making a joke. "Wow! You really are the ladies man!"

"Stuff it, Padfoot," James spat. It was a tiny condolence to Lily, that James seemed to be in almost as bad of a mood as she was. For the rest of the class, Lily noticed that James was silent, which was a very rare occurrence. Even Sirius didn't push him to speak.

When the lesson ended, Lily headed straight for her dorm without a word to anyone. As soon as she got there, she plopped down in an armchair and started working on her Transfiguration homework. Fifteen minutes later, she heard James come through the entrance. "Lily?" James said tentatively. She didn't look up.

"What do you want now, Potter?" she snarled. "Come to embarrass me a little more perhaps? Or maybe you want me to get all scared again and worry like a sick maniac. Or maybe-"

"Lily!" James finally shouted over her. James set his bag on the sofa. "I just wanted to let you know, I'm sorry. I didn't mean for you to get upset or hurt."

"You could have fooled me. Oh wait. You did!"

"Honestly! I was just kidding around! Had I known that any of this would have happened, believe me, I wouldn't have done it."

"Potter! Just…Just leave me alone!" Lily stormed up to her room and slammed the door.

Lily uncharacteristically threw her bag in a corner of her room and flung herself onto the bed. James Potter had struck again. He had humiliated her once again. Lily's mind was a cyclone of maybes, and a-little's, and what-if's. Maybe she had started to ease up on him a bit. Maybe she didn't think he was rotten through and through. Sure, she hoped a little that they could be friends. It would help a little if they were nice to each other. But what if something terrible ever happens to him, and she didn't help because she thought he was joking. Or worse, what if he knew that she started feeling a little less than hatred for him. It would no doubt be the end of her.

She allowed herself a mini-tantrum of kicking and flailing with a yell of frustration, then she composed herself, took a shower, dressed in some comfortable clothes, and went back downstairs to do battle. But James was not there. So, she went back upstairs to finish her work.

* * *

"Hey, Lily," Kat greeted her friend as they sat down for dinner on the wooden benches. "How was class? We didn't see you in the Common Room after. Where were you?"

"I don't want to talk about it," Lily replied as she violently stabbed a piece of chicken.

Kat and Ali exchanged looks that portrayed "Oh no", and "Here we go again". As good of friends as they were, Lily was definitely the self-proclaimed loaded cannon. She knew that her temper was more volatile than the average person. And yes, sometimes she overreacted, but usually she could keep her cool. Unless it had to do with James Potter.

"Are you sure you don't want to talk about it?" Ali pushed.

"Okay, look. I can put it into four words…" Lily said as she counted them on her fingers. "Potter—is—a—Prat! And though I could fill encyclopedias with insults, no I mean _truths_, about Potter, those four words very nicely sum up the thousands of pages otherwise needed." Lily said all in one breath, very calmly in her opinion.

"Just one question, " Kat said with a smile in her hazel eyes, and Lily glared at her friend.

"Um… one word." Ali smirked.

"Why?" Both Kat and Ali asked, with amused looks.

"Hmm, maybe it's because he's egotistical. Maybe it's because he's a jerk. Maybe it's because he thinks it's cool to constantly look like he just got off a broom." Lily could feel her temper rising, so she tried to calm herself. She continued in a whisper. "Or maybe, just maybe," Lily stopped for a moment, hardly believing she was admitting this out loud. But if she couldn't tell her friends, who could she tell? "Maybe, it's because I had the slightest fraction of a thought for his well-being, and he turned it around and made me fall on my arse! Literally, mind you…"

"You're okay though, right?" Kat asked, fighting back a smile.

"No broken butt bones?" Ali asked as she casually played with the ends of her long golden hair.

Lily finally allowed herself a small smile. "I'm sorry. I don't mean to yell at you two, but he's just so rude, and he makes me so angry. Don't you think he's arrogant?"

"I guess, but I don't think he's all that bad. . ."

"Hey, are you and James planning the Halloween Ball?" Kat cut in.

"I haven't heard anything about it yet." Lily answered. "Why? Do you two have any good ideas? You're both really good at that kind of stuff."

"Actually we have! Ali and I were thinking that—"

"The theme could be famous witches and wizards!" Ali said, unable to control her excitement.

"But there's a catch!" Kat began again excitedly. "If you have a date, you can compete in a couples' competition! We could set up games and have the couples battle each other to find out which famous witch and wizard couple, was the best!"

"Isn't that a great idea?" Ali waited until Kat was finished this time.

Lily laughed at the enthusiasm of her friends and agreed that it was a fabulous idea. Then, the memory of her last dance-date raced through her brain. Richie McCullaugh of Hufflepuff, had thought that at the end of the night, he was entitled to Lily's lips and his hand on her rear. But the fish-lip hex, and well played arm-locking curse, told McCullaugh that Lily did not agree. "Who will we go with?"

"Well, you know who each of us wants to go with," Kat motioned to herself and Ali, "We just need to find you a date."

"Yeah, that could be a problem." Lily said, now a bit depressed.

"You could go with Richie McFishy again," Kat teased.

"Great idea!" Lily laughed. "Though, I don't think he'd say 'yes'."

"What about James?" Ali said.

"Oh, even better idea!" Lily laughed harder. "Then we could all be in our perfect little group, and take pictures of our perfect little couples, and have a perfect little time!" Lily smothered her words in a full application of sarcasm.

"Sounds like the perfect little night!" Kat said, but her face was too serious for Lily's liking.

"Come on, Lily. It wouldn't be too rough," Ali pleaded. Lily thought her friends might have taken her a little too seriously, but she didn't dwell on it. She just spotted Potter leaving the Great Hall without Sirius. She could barely fill a hand with the number of times James went somewhere alone. He and Sirius were always together. They even went to the bathroom together.

"Sorry girls, I'll have to catch up with you later," Lily was annoyed to see that her friends exchanged an all-knowing look with each other before she left. But Lily didn't follow Potter. She had just remembered what the Headmaster had said to James. "A rough summer." Wasn't that what Professor Dumbledore had said?

"Hey, Sirius?" Lily tapped his back.

"Hey, Lily. What can I do for you?" Sirius smiled his "I'm good-looking-and-I-know-it" smile full force from his pearly whites to his baby blues, without a trace of fear. Obviously he had forgotten about the episode earlier in the classroom.

She sat down in the empty seat next to him. "I was wondering if you could tell me what happened to Potter this summer?"

Sirius choked on the cookie he was munching on. "Sorry?"

"The Headmaster said something about Potter having a rough summer, and I was thinking that since you lived with him, you'd be able to tell me what happened?"

He gulped down some milk, smoothed out his curtain of thick black hair, then took another cookie. He ate this one slowly, maybe so he wouldn't choke again, but after three minutes and only two nibbles of cookie, Lily realized he was stalling.

"You can't tell me anything?"

"I can tell you that he's changed a lot," Sirius offered. "He's gotten a bit more..." Sirius paused and thought some more.

"Idiotic?"

"No," Sirius said undisturbed.

"Dim-witted?"

"Nope."

"Reckless?"

"Grown-up."

Lily burst out laughing. "Potter? James Potter? More grown up? You're off your rocker," Lily stood up, still laughing.

"No, I'm serious!"

"Very funny. I know you are Sirius. But I'm not sure you know who Potter is," Lily shook her head, believing Sirius was still joking. "Grown up, honestly," she sniggered all the way out of the Great Hall, up the marble staircase, and to her dorm, not noticing the other students staring at her strange behavior.

"Sweet Tarts," Lily gained entrance into her common room.

"Hey Lily, I just—" James caught Lily off guard. She had almost been successful in ignoring him.

"You just what?" Lily interrupted him. "Want to embarrass me some more? Potter, I just don't feel like talking to you right now." She went straight to her room and started working on her Herbology homework.

* * *

_**Okay, you know what comes now. That awkward time when I must beg you to review my humble story.  
I honestly value your opinions, so don't be afraid to share them with me. Good, bad, or otherwise, they'll be accepted.  
But thank you for at least taking the time to read :)**_

_**Until next time... ^_^  
**_


	6. 06: The Confession

_**Here's the next chapter for you :)  
Along with some "Thank You" notes for Avada Kedavra Avada Off, Tiva-Babe UK, jane, Orange-Coyote, and Super Cara.  
Thank you so much for your wonderful reviews! I appreciate them so much!  
I hope you all enjoy this next chapter :)  
~MissChievous13**_

* * *

**Chapter 6- The Confession**

Lily managed to avoid James for almost the entire week. In their classes, she sat at the very front. At meals, she squished herself between Kat and Ali, making sure to sit across from anyone but him. And in the dorm, James didn't push her to talk. Maybe he felt he had done enough damage. Or maybe he thought Lily would get better on her own. Whatever the reason, Lily was thankful that he didn't pester her. But things were bound to get shaken up at some point, and it finally happened one night at dinner.

"Hey, Lily," Kat started. Lily noticed that she seemed hesitant.

"Yes? What is it, Kat?" Lily asked, expecting another inquiry about her status with James.

"I was, well, we were wondering where you are all of the time." Kat said as she served herself some carrots.

"I think Kat means, where are you living? We've figured out that you don't live with us anymore." Ali said.

"We've barely seen you since this year started! And it's our last year, and we miss you." Kat pouted her full lips.

Lily choked on her soup as her stomach twisted. Her imagination couldn't even come up with what horrific things they would say when she told them she was living with the person she loathed. "Uh, what? What do you mean? I see you two all the time! We eat all of our meals together and-"

"Oh, no you don't," Kat waved a finger. "I can see it all over your face. Now spill it, Lily Evans."

Lily took a deep breath, held it for a good three seconds then said in a whoosh, "James and I live together in a special 'Heads Only' living area," she finished wincing, waiting for the onslaught of comments and/or laughter that was sure to hit her. But she waited with her eyes squeezed shut for a long time, and it never came. Slowly, she pried them open and looked at her two best friends. Their mouths were hanging open, almost wide enough to be resting on the table, and it was a wonder that their eyes hadn't rolled onto the table to join the Brussels sprouts.

"You're kidding," Kat choked.

"No way," Ali said.

"Dumbledore and the rest of the staff thought it would be a good idea to keep Head Boy and Girl close by in case of any attack. Even though that isn't expected, the increasing threat of Voldemort rules nothing out, so the teachers couldn't rule anything out. So, in order to increase security, the Head Boy and Girl have living quarters very close to Professor Dumbledore's if there were ever an emergency." The only sign of life her friends showed was a shiver at the sound of Voldemort's name. And suddenly she remembered, "But each of us has our own bedroom and bathroom. We only share a Common Room…"

"You…you're…" suddenly, both girls were howling like werewolves. "YOU, Lily Evans… are _living_ with… with… with JAMES POTTER!" Kat screamed jerkily through her uncontrollable laughter.

"Shut up," Lily hissed shooting a glance at the Marauders. "Yes, I guess you could say that," she said in an almost inaudible whisper.

"Never thought I'd ever see the day _that_ happened!" Ali shrieked.

"Okay, are you two done now?" Lily pleaded as their giggles began to subside.

"Hey! What's so funny over here?" Sirius came and asked Kat as Remus and Peter followed him. Thankfully James was talking with Frank and didn't come over. But Kat and Ali's laughter renewed. "What? Do I have a bogie or something?" Sirius asked with mock disbelief, as he nervously rubbed his nose.

"Ewww, no! We just found out," Kat gasped for air as the two girls' laughter was strengthened yet again, "that our good friend Lily here, is," her laughing fit was so violent that it punctured her sentence, "is… _living_ with her most favorite person in the world, your good buddy, JAMES!" Kat seemed to have finished her sentence just in time because her uncontrollable laughter had progressed so that she could no longer breathe.

"I know! We found out just the other day! Isn't that something?" Remus added as he and the other two present Marauders joined in the laughter.

Lily endured exactly four more minutes of teasing, before she stuffed some food in a napkin and went to her room to eat her dinner in peace.

After she finished her cold roll and some cheese, Lily picked up the book she was currently reading and went down to the Common Room. She pulled one of the squashy chairs up to the fire and sat with her feet hanging off one arm and her shoulders against the other. She adjusted until she was just comfortable, opened her book and—

"Lily, will you just listen to me?" James begged. Lily allowed herself a moment's thought that James would never give up. But thought again; she wasn't known for giving up either.

"Potter, I don't care anymore. I don't care what you meant or what happened or what you're thinking. End of story. Case closed. Good night." Lily marched right back up the stairs not bothering to pick up her book which had flown off her lap as she bolted up.

James marched after her and shouted, "But, Miss Smarty Pants, you forgot! It's not over 'till the fat lady sings!"

"Then go find her. I trust you remember where she is. Ask her, I'm sure she'll sing for you!" Lily slammed her door.

"I'm not leaving you alone until you show or grow the decency to accept my apology like a reasonable human being! You might be able to snub everyone you know like this, Miss Lily Marie Evans, but not me!" James yelled through the door.

"FINE! Bug me to my grave! What do I care?" Lily was surprised that none of her anger had subsided over the past few days.

"Why is it that when one little thing doesn't go your way, you go crazy and insult the entire world, but then expect people to come running back to you? Just accept for once in your life, that I am trying to be nice and apologize to you!"

"Why? So we can go through all of this again the next time you embarrass me?" Lily bellowed back, livid from her hot ears to her balled up fists. "Just so you know, I will no longer be able to hear you, so yell as loud as you want!" Lily took out her wand and cast a spell to make her door a sound barrier. It worked, she couldn't hear James's ridiculous rants anymore. Lily knew that there was something to what James had said, but he did truly embarrass her. Of course, she did lose control a bit much sometimes. But she hated being embarrassed more than she hated Potter, which, in her mind, was really saying something. But then, her father had been telling her she needed to grow patience since the time she was five and didn't want to wait for her birthday cake to bake. Every thirty seconds she would ask her father to check on the cake. After only four and a half minutes, the cake was finished. Her dad thought he must have set the timer wrong. Later, Lily deduced that it was the first true sign of her magical ability.

Even so, Potter had the cursed ability to press her buttons. She admitted that she didn't really make an effort to hold back her anger when it came to him; his ridiculous hair and his incessant need to show off at every possible moment, playing with that irritating Snitch. Lily guessed this was because she was still mad at him for splitting up her's and Severus' friendship. But Severus had made the choice too. He had called her a name he never would have used, and Lily was slowly realizing that this might be the first thing in her life she couldn't fix. She couldn't force Severus away from the Dark Arts. She couldn't save him. But that wasn't James' fault.

After another couple of hours trying to do homework, but getting caught in the back-and-forth between the part of her that loathed James, and the part of her that realized her recent behavior wasn't working, Lily decided she should at least accept his apology. Maybe she would try to go easier on him, too. Ignoring him was getting difficult, and it was putting her friends in an awkward situation.

Lily opened her door and held back a gasp of surprise. There was the big Quidditch Star, James Potter, sitting on the floor. His head hanging to his chest, his glasses lopsided, and fast asleep. For the second time in her life, Lily looked at James and felt remorse for the way she treated him. When he slept, he looked like a normal person. Not the joker or prankster. Not the Marauder or King of Embarrassment. Just a normal person. A cute one too. Lily mentally smacked herself and told herself to get a grip. But if he was sleeping, she could apologize and feel better, without being embarrassed or giving him the satisfaction that he was right.

"James," Lily whispered not wanting him to wake up. "I just wanted to let you know that I've been thinking. I accept your apology, but also I should apologize to you. Maybe I'm too hard on you sometimes, and I'm sorry for that." Lily paused as she collected her thoughts. "This is so much easier when you're sleeping."

Lily sat down next to him, leaning against the smooth stone wall. "I get embarrassed really easily, and you're usually the one embarrassing me, so I guess that's why I always get mad at you. When you scared me, I got embarrassed, and clearly, I didn't know how to handle it. But you saw that," Lily smiled. It felt a little silly talking to a sleeping person, but it also felt surprisingly good to speak her thoughts out loud; even if it was to James.

"Anyways, I'm sorry for all the times I've taken my anger out on you. Severus was such a good friend to me, and I guess I needed someone to blame for our broken friendship. I'm sorry," she took another cleansing breath. "And I'm going to try harder from now on, to ease up on you and have more patience. Also, I'll try not to yell so much," she rubbed her sore throat.

Lily laid down on her side and propped her head up on her hand, her elbow easing into the carpet. "But you have to promise not to tell anyone." Taking his silence as a promise, Lily continued. "Sometimes I think about our first Hogwarts Express ride. You know, I actually thought you were cool," Lily giggled quietly. "You were funny, you had already made friends, and you knew a lot about the magical world. I was impressed." Lily felt her eyelids growing heavier, but she fought against her fatigue. "James, there's this part of me that's known since that first train ride, that you were meant to be in my life in one way or another. From right after the first feast, until just today, I was afraid it was only to torture me and teach me patience." Stifling a yawn, Lily felt herself slipping towards sleep, but she felt like she owed James an explanation, of course, only while he was sleeping. She would never tell him if he were awake.

"Today, something is different. Just a little bit, but different enough to make me think that maybe your role in my life is something other than 'torturer'. Maybe," Lily stretched out her sore arm, and rotated her aching wrist. "Maybe, your place is supposed to be a positive one."

Yawning, Lily felt a giant invisible weight lift off of her chest. It felt right to finally be telling James the truth. "Call me crazy," Lily slipped further and further into sleep with each word. "But I think if you stopped embarrassing me, we could be friends. Or..." Her last thought got lost as she fell asleep beside James on the floor in the hall. But the last thought that registered before her eyes closed to complete darkness, was that she thought she saw James smile.

* * *

"Hey Lily," James said softly as he gently shook her. "Lily wake up, it's time to get ready."

At first, Lily didn't realize where she was, and she awoke with a start.

"Lily?" James asked.

"Huh?" she shook her head. "Sorry. I uh…" then she remembered the night before and realized she must have fallen asleep. The crick in her neck confirmed it.

"Lily, I think you need to get ready. Breakfast just started a few minutes ago. You wouldn't want to be late," James flashed a grin.

"I'm sorry! This is the second time I've done this!" Lily said as she jumped to her feet.

"Don't worry about it. I'll wait for you to get ready, and then we can go eat," James called to Lily who had already shut her door.

Lily raked a brush through her hair and secured half of it back with a green clip. With the speed of a Fanged Frisbee, she dressed, grabbed her bag, and headed down the stairs, jumping the last three.

"Hey, Lily?" James asked as soon as he saw her. "I have a question for you."

"Yeah, about yesterday, I'm really sorry," she said as she climbed the stairs out of their common room. "I was really embarrassed, and I shouldn't have taken it out on you like that. It wasn't fair." Lily resolved. "Though it was your fault."

"So, you accept my apology then?" James questioned hopefully.

"Yes," Lily answered sincerely, as they entered the corridor.

James's golden eyes sparkled behind his glasses. "Can we be friends?"

Taking Lily by surprise, she quickly looked around to make sure no one was watching them. Though she had admitted to herself that she might be able to have a friendship with James Potter, she wasn't ready to tell the whole school. "On one condition. You promise that if you must prank someone, you won't do it around me. Especially," she gulped back nerves, "Severus. Okay?"

"I would do anything for you, Lily." James grinned and stuck out his hand.

"Deal," and Lily, making sure once more that no one else was in the corridor, shook his hand and made it official.

"Now let's go! I'm starving!" James cried as Lily laughed and freed her mind from her grudges of the past. Surprisingly, it felt easier than she thought it would be.

The day went smoothly. Lily, James, Sirius, and Remus were in all the same classes. Today they had another dose of Herbology, double Potions before lunch, and double Charms. Charms was Lily's favorite and best subject, but it just so happened that James and Sirius' needed a bit of extra help. So, aside from almost being smacked in the head by the small figures they were trying to maneuver around the room with their wands, Lily was having a great second day.

In fact, Lily had a really relaxed time after she had decided to start over with James. Even Herbology first thing every morning, didn't bother her as much as she expected it to. The only bad thing was the amount of homework they got. All of their teachers seemed to be trying to see how much homework they could give their students before their backs broke with the weight. They were all trying to "prepare" their students for their N.E.W.T.'s, but more importantly, their jobs and lives after school. Lily and James were so busy with their homework that they didn't have much time to talk. But there was a much friendlier manner between the two.

In the library one night, Lily, Kat, and Ali were sitting at a table deep in the "Spell Casting" section. Surrounded by towering wooden shelves of books, Kat cleared her throat and said, "Hey Lily, what's going on between you and the infamous Potter?" from behind her Arithmancy book.

"Umm," Lily scribbled notes about levitation charms, trying to stretch the seconds until she was forced to answer the question. "Well, we decided that we would try to be friends." Lily replied, not looking up from her parchment. But feeling their gazes on her, she looked up and saw the surprised looks on their faces. Her defenses kicked in. "What? You two look as if that's a huge shock or something."

"But Lily," Ali began, after magically clearing the ink she had just spilled all over her essay, "It is! But, I'm more impressed than shocked. I never expected you to listen to us. I mean, with how much you complained I—"

"Wait. Stop. Back up." Her friends faces changed from looks of shock to masks of guilt. "Explain. What do you mean 'listen to you'?" Lily asked suspiciously. Ali bit her lip and determined not to speak. Kat's eyes widened, but she snapped her gaze to observe a book magically replacing itself on a shelf. "Hold on. But you didn't. What are you two smirking at?" But they didn't answer. "Hello? What is it?"

"Well, Lily we hate to say it but—" Kat began…

"We told you so!" they both exclaimed. And Lily couldn't help but laugh with her friends.

"You two are off your rockers." Lily shook her head with a smile. "But you better can it, or Madame Pince is going to kick us out.

Not wanting to be harassed any further, Lily sneaked away from her friends to search for a book she remembered she could use. But she spotted Heath talking to James, and thought it extremely odd. For one, James had a reaction to the library similar to the reaction vampires had to crosses. And two, she noticed they were pretty close to where her friends had been shrieking about her living situation. "Hello boys. Did you get caught copying Remus' essays and have to come spy on someone else writing?"

"No," James said seriously. "For your information, Remus knows well enough to change the wording when he writes my essay so that the two aren't too much alike." Lily smiled.

"Lily, James and I were just figuring out when he's going to help me with flying." Heath answered. "But, I'll leave you two alone," Heath teased with an eyebrow wiggle at James as he dragged out the last syllable in a suggestive way.

"Wait, what?" Began a thoroughly confused Lily, but Heath had already left with his bag and books. "What was that all about?" Lily directed at James.

"Oh," he stalled and pushed his round glasses up on his nose, "he just heard that we are sharing a dorm, and he thinks it means something." James smiled. "He thinks we like each other. You remember that third year mentality." James laughed, and Lily allowed herself a nervous giggle. "So, how about that Potions homework?"

"It's just long. Not that difficult though," Lily shrugged.

"I guess," James conceded, "but Charms is where I, think I sort of, maybe, need help," James admitted nervously. "Do you think you could help me sometime with the_ Contrata_ charm? It's much more intense than _Wingardium_ _Leviosa_." James was now ruffling his hair.

"Well, I don't see why not."

"Thanks, Lils."

That night at dinner, James and Lily both received a message from Professor Dumbledore. He required a meeting with them and the prefects later that night. They spread the word to the prefects, and that night, the Headmaster, the heads of the houses, the Head boy and Head Girl, and all of the prefects met in the Great Hall near the teachers' table.

As everyone slowly gathered and conversed, James and Lily walked around making sure everyone was present. Finally, Dumbledore spoke. "Good evening to you all. I'm sure you're all very tired and want to know why you were called here. Tonight you will be receiving your patrolling duty assignments." Professor McGonagall then began handing out pieces of parchment. "On these slips of parchment, the patrolling duties are listed. Specific nights are reserved by year, except for a few special occasions."

They all followed along as Dumbledore read the schedule out loud. "Fifth year prefects are to patrol on Wednesday nights. Sixth years, on Tuesday nights. Seventh years on Monday and Thursday nights, and Heads, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights. The hours you will be patrolling are from 10:00pm to 12:00am. Of course, as exams creep closer, your duties will be lightened. In the event you cannot make it to your patrol, notify your head of house, immediately. And always patrol with your fellow House prefect. Are there any questions?"

After a few moments of silence, Dumbledore concluded the meeting. "Alright. Well, go get some sleep or do your homework," he said with a wink. "Good night."

Everyone began picking up their things and heading for their dorms, but they all stopped as Dumbledore spoke once more. "Ah, I almost forgot. Lily and James, if you two could kindly stay a moment longer. Thank you." Lily and James doubled back towards their Headmaster. "Good night to you all." He called to the others.

Now it was just James, Lily, and their Headmaster. "I would like to start by congratulating you on your first week of being Head Boy and Head Girl. I am very proud of the two of you." Dumbledore said with the twinkle in his eye a bit more noticeable than usual. "But down to business." Lily listened alertly. "I need the two of you to come up with a theme for this year's Halloween Ball. It is tradition that the Head Boy and Head Girl plan the ball. I will need some ideas in, shall we say, about a week?" Lily and James nodded. "Alright, 9:30pm a week from this coming Sunday, in my office. Good luck on your first night of patrolling!" Dumbledore said with a smile. He then got up and left through a concealed passage behind the teachers' table.

"Wow," Lily sighed. "Patrol duty all weekend. That's a lot."

"Yeah," James smiled. "You have to endure two straight hours of me every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights. Think you're up to the challenge, Evans?"

Lily laughed. "Don't remind me!" she said playfully.

"Hey!" James exclaimed in mock injury. "That hurts, Evans! It won't be that bad. You know we'll have fun."

"Right," Lily rolled her eyes just like she would with Kat or Ali. But she couldn't hold it in anymore. She burst out laughing. She laughed so hard and so loud that she started to cry. There she was. Co-Head with someone whom she couldn't look at without gagging for six years, and they were joking around like they'd been best friends since they could walk. It was absurd. It was beyond absurd, and Lily couldn't stop laughing. Not long after, James joined Lily in her laughter, and together their joy echoed across the empty Hall.

Finally, they began to calm down with tears still in their eyes. "Okay, okay, we have to go patrol," Lily finally got out between gasping for air and the last of her giggles.

"All right," James said as he wiped the tears out of his eyes. "I just have to go grab something from my room, and we'll be hot to trot." His choice of words sent Lily into another lapse of giggles as they walked back to their dorm.

Ten minutes later they were in their Common Room ready to go. Lily had her Charms notes with her so that she could quiz James, and James had a piece of old parchment. "What's that?" Lily asked James pointing to the parchment.

"You really want to know?" James asked and Lily nodded. "No, I don't think you can handle it."

"What? As your Co-Head I demand to see that parchment," Lily said smiling.

"Are you sure you can handle it?"

"_Accio Par_-"

"Okay okay. Sheesh. But you can't tell anyone." James whispered secretively.

"I won't. I promise."

"I thought it would help us on out patrols." Then Lily watched as he tapped the parchment with the tip of his wand and muttered, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." Lily uttered a surprised gasp as she watched the parchment suddenly grow ink out of nowhere. The ink curled, spiraled, and looped like tendrils of Devil's Snare. It formed shapes and words faster than Lily's eyes could follow the trails. It said:

Messrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs  
Purveyors of Aids to Magical Mischief-Makers  
Are proud to present  
THE MARAUDERS MAP.

"Is that—"

"Hogwarts," James finished. "Yes, but not only Hogwarts," he said with a cheesy flourish. "Hogwarts, and everyone in and around it, anywhere, at anytime."

"Aren't those the names you and the Marauders have for each other?" Lily asked still not connecting the dots.

"Why yes they are, my Lily Flower!" James announced with a huge triumphant grin on his face. "Remus is Moony, Peter is Wormtail, Sirius is Padfoot, and I am Prongs." James added with a dramatic bow.

"This is really amazing!" Lily exclaimed with admiration. "You four did all of this? I mean, this is pretty advanced work!"

"Between the four of us, it wasn't that hard. A few tracking and tracing spells, a thorough investigation of the castle, an identification spell, and of course our special Marauder handiwork. Put them all together and this is what you get. Do you like it?" James said with a smirk.

"Like?" Lily said, and James cringed. "I love it!" Lily exclaimed giving James a huge hug. "This is so wicked! You know," Lily began as she walked towards the portrait stairs, "We could have fun with this. If we saw Malfoy out of bed, we could tip off Filch!" Lily exclaimed as her excitement grew.

"I didn't know that you were okay with rule breaking, little Miss Perfect Prefect." James teased.

"Ha, Ha." Lily shot sarcastically as she punched James' arm. "It's little Miss Perfect Head Girl to you!"

"Oh, I'm frightfully sorry, miss." And James lunged into a very low bow, causing Lily to start giggling once again.

The night continued in a similar way. They patrolled, talked, joked, and examined the map together. The Charms notes were forgotten. They didn't catch Malfoy, but plotted what they would do if they did.

Once they were back in their dorm, Lily said, "Wow! Tonight was so much fun!" They made their way up the stairs towards their bedrooms. "We should do this again sometime!" She said with a huge smile.

"Okay, how about," James tapped his head in mock thought, "tomorrow night?"

"Right," Lily said conspiratorially, "I'll meet you in the same place, at the same time!" Lily played along. Of course tomorrow was Saturday and they had to patrol again.

Laughing, James said, "Well, I'll see you tomorrow, beautiful."

"Very funny!" Lily stuck her tongue out at him. "I'll see you tomorrow, James. Have a good night," she said.

"You too. And sweet dreams!" James called to her as she closed her door_._

As Lily closed her door she realized that she had just called him "James" for the first time since their first train ride to Hogwarts.

* * *

_**Okay, you know what to do next :)  
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**_


	7. 07: The Dream Team

**_Chapter 7 ready and waiting for your reading :D  
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**_Without further adieu, here's the next one _^_^  
**

* * *

**Chapter 7- The Dream Team**

In the next week, James and Lily grew closer, even though they argued at least once a day. But unlike before, the arguments were about stupid things, like what trilogy of movies was the best; "Star Wars" or "The Matron Hex." Or which one of them was better suited to star in a movie. But, every patrol night presented a new adventure, including catching Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle out of bed. The result was detention for the three of them, and 20 points from Slytherin, each. It also made for a great story and gloating session in the Gryffindor Common Room. One night, Lily even got up the courage to ask about James's summer.

"Why did Professor Dumbledore say you had a tough summer?" Lily asked on night while the pair were lying on their stomachs, studying on the floor in their common room.

She studied James's face and reaction very carefully. His breathing slowed significantly, his eyebrows creased a bit, and he swallowed slowly. The look on his face made Lily retract her question. "It's okay, you don't have to tell me."

"Well," James took a slow deep breath. "You see, it's just, when I think about it, it takes me back to that time," James sat up. "And though I'd rather forget it, I can't ignore it."

"I'm so sorry I asked you, James. Really you don't have to tell me."

"My parents died this summer."

The statement hung in the air like dementor mist. When Lily finally took a breath, the air that filled her lungs was cold and froze her insides.

"James," her voice broke. "I'm so sorry. I had no idea it was anything like-"

"It's okay," James's offered an empty half-smile. "They had been sick for a long time. Spent nearly a year in St. Mungo's. They had what the healers called, 'Vanishing Sickness'."

"Isn't that from apparating and disapparating too much?"

"Yes. My parents could never have kids of their own, even when they got married at 20 years old. From the time they accepted that fact, they traveled around the world helping other peoples' children. Magic children, muggle children, it didn't matter. They devoted their lives to helping children in need," James's voice strengthened as he shared his parents' accomplishments. Lily could feel his pride. "They were such good people. They were both trained healers and very skilled at magic. They would tell me stories when I was young about how they would show up outside of a small camp or village, bringing nothing at first. Just a trade of their medical skills for a place to stay. They gained the trust of the people by helping the sick and injured. Then they would start bringing food and supplies. They truly loved helping others. Especially the children."

Lily let this information sink in. She had always thought James Potter to be the son of some wealthy snobbish couple. But to learn about his real parents astounded her. She could barely find her voice. "So, if they couldn't have children, how did-"

"They met a shaman in an Amazonian tribe when my parents were in their sixties. They had stayed with that particular tribe for almost six months. There was a deadly strain of some disease, I can't remember the name, but my parents healed the entire tribe. It was a miracle to them, so the village sent out messengers to other tribes they trusted, and my parents stayed there as tribe after tribe came with their infected members. My parents healed them too. As a way to repay my parents, the shaman was brought in. My mother said that the woman knew without even speaking to her that she wanted a child of her own more than anything in this world. My mother swore the woman could use legilimens," James actually smiled at this point, allowing Lily to relax a bit. "So the shaman performed a ritual on my parents, and two months later, my mother knew she was pregnant."

"Wow, I don't know of any magic that can cause that," Lily said in awe.

"Neither do I, but I'm so grateful for it," James nodded his head. "I was a surprise child, you could say. And my parents were so shocked that they spoiled me rotten," James grinned. "And I was a brat too. I loved pulling pranks on them, even when I just started walking." James's smile slowly faded. "But this summer, they pulled the greatest prank on me. From apparating and disapparating such far distances and at such a high frequency, they developed the Vanishing Sickness. It's still incurable by the healers. All they could tell me was that my parents had apparated so many times that their bodies were seeming to disapparate themselves. Before they went to the hospital, I noticed my mother's hair becoming more transparent, as well as my fathers fingers and toes, but I thought it was my imagination or a trick of the light. After a while, one of them would occasionally fall down. Their feet had started to fade in and out. That's when they went to the hospital."

Lily sidled up next to James, and rested her hand on his knee. Trying to offer him any sort of comfort she could, though she knew it wasn't much.

"Their bodies slowly became invisible until one day this summer, they just disappeared completely. I kept thinking they would reappear."

* * *

Slowly, they rolled through classes and studied every chance they got, including studying while on patrol. Lily now had a greater appreciation for James and his past. From the night he told her about his parents, they had grown closer and more comfortable with each other. Lily continued calling James by his first name. This made him grin every time and made her best friends giggle. James continued helping Heath with his flying, while Lily tagged along. A few times, she spoke up and told James he was doing it all wrong. She wanted her brother to have the best chance for the tryout, and James liked to goof around sometimes. So, occasionally, Lily left her books in the stands, yanked the broomstick out of James's hands, and shared her flying knowledge with her brother. Before they knew it, it was September 14th: the day of tryouts for the Gryffindor Quidditch Team.

"James!" Lily yelled through his door. "James, you need to get up!" Lily did not hear an answer from the other side of the door, so she let herself into the room and saw James asleep on his side, one knee up to his chest, his face squished against his pillow, and his mouth wide open. Suddenly she remembered the few times James had woken her up. He hadn't done it gently. Lily felt it was time for a little payback. So, she quietly tiptoed over to his bed. James gave a loud snore, and Lily fought hard to suppress a giggle. As quietly as she could, Lily cast a rippling charm on the bed and began screaming, "EARTHQUAKE!"

"What?" said a very groggy James. "What's going on!" he said with more panic in his voice.

Lily began laughing hysterically and could not stop. Realizing what was happening, James grabbed his wand and cast a tickling curse on Lily, who laughed even louder. "Stop!" Lily gasped in between her shouting giggles. She was laughing so violently that she couldn't cast a countercurse. James removed the curse only when she begged that she couldn't breathe.

Finally, Lily was able to get out "Quidditch!" And then about another minute later, "Try outs!"

"Well why didn't you say so!" James exclaimed as he jumped off the bed. "I'm going to be late!" Then he picked Lily up from where she had fallen to the ground with laughter, and helped her out of the room. After composing herself, Lily went down to the Hall and filled a napkin with some food, so that James could eat something before the tryout.

"Hey James!" Lily yelled through his door. "I've brought you some breakfast!"

"Thanks, dearest," James teased as he opened his door.

"You don't want it?" Lily whisked the napkin filled with food away from him. "Alright, I'll just eat it then," Lily popped a grape into her mouth.

"Hey!" James grabbed at the food, but Lily was quicker, and James almost tripped head-first into the wall. Lily almost choked on her grape, but she turned it into a laugh acting like nothing happened. "And why don't you have your cloak on?"

"Why would I? I'm not the one running try-outs, oh Great Sir Captain." Lily smirked as she bowed low to him while holding the food up as an offering. "Though maybe I should be. You don't seem to be too coordinated this morning, judging from your head butt into the wall."

"Why not! You're a great flyer, and you're quick. We could really use you this year," said an unabashed James.

"Hmm, let me think…" Lily tapped her chin and looked up at the ceiling. "Yeah right! I don't have time for Quidditch. There are these really important tests we have to take. Um, I don't know if you've heard of them. They're called N.E.W.T.'s!"

"Lily, come on. You were really great at teaching Heath. Plus, you know the captains! So that can't hurt," James gave her a wink. "But honestly, you're good, and we need you if we want a chance at beating Slytherin for the Quidditch Cup." James knelt down in front of Lily with his hands clasped together, "Please?" he begged. "For me? Please? For Heath? For Gryffindor?" James stuck out his lip like a puppy dog, which Lily found strangely irresistible. "So we can beat Malfoy and his death eater friends?"

Lily couldn't reject a James with that look, nor could ever she say "no" to getting back at Malfoy. The saying, "a picture is worth a thousand words" surfaced to the top of her thoughts as she looked at James. Only, this picture was worth about ten thousand words. "Fine, I'll tryout," she said with a pitying a smile.

James jumped to his feet and, accidentally knocking the napkin of food out of her hands, wrapped Lily in a huge bear hug that was so powerful, she was lifted into the air. He set her down and shooed her into her room. Once he closed her door, Lily remembered to breathe. It took her about fifteen seconds to collect herself enough to finish getting ready.

Half an hour later, Lily and James met up with Sirius and the rest of their friends in the Great Hall. Sirius looked like James had taken a bubotuber and a mandrake and combined them to make a veela. "You got her to try-out?"

"Come on, it's me!" James replied with a triumphant smile on his face. "All that was needed was a little Potter Charm and—"

"A guilt trip," Lily cut in with a tease. "So, I'm trying out. What's the big deal? I'm just here to give Heath a little confidence."

"Yeah, and you're actually good. Your coordination is impeccable!" Sirius said so sincerely, Lily felt embarrassed warmth spread from her neck to her face. "Anyways, where in Great Britain have you been, Prongs?"

"Calm down, Sirius." James motioned with the hand that wasn't shoveling food into his mouth.

"He just woke up late," Lily finished for him.

"Phew!" Sirius wiped his forehead. "I was scared for a second. I think I almost had a heart assault!"

"You mean, heart attack?" Lily said with a snort.

"You are such a drama queen, Sirius," Kat said with her signature eye roll.

"Excuse me?" Sirius started, looking offended. "I am not a girl!" he said with a you-should-have-known-that tone.

"Okay, but we have to go or we're going to be late for our own tryout!" James herded them out the door to the Quidditch pitch. They were not the first ones there, and luckily, they weren't last either.

"Lily! You came to watch me!" Heath landed and came running over to his sister leaving Mikey to talk to James and Sirius. "I was getting nervous, but I do so much better when you're watching." Heath and Lily had a very strong bond due to Petunia's hatred towards them. Lily and Petunia had once been so close, but it all changed the day Lily received her Hogwarts letter. And when Heath received his, Petunia rejected them both.

"Actually, I'm trying out," Lily smiled weakly. Heath gave Lily a confused look. "Sorry, do you not want me to?" Lily asked, worried by her brother's expression.

"No! It's not that at all. It's just that," Heath twisted his gloved hands around the handle of his broomstick, "how am I going to have a chance at making the team if you try out, too?"

"Aww, come on Heath." Lily tried to cheer him up. "You don't have anything to worry about." Lily threw her arm around her little brother, "I might be good, but you and I together are wicked! Siblings on the same team are unstoppable! It's like we're on the same channel. You'll be great!" She then gave her brother a peck on the top of his head and rustled his red hair.

"Well, I won't get the Chaser position if you're trying out. I better tryout for Seeker as well," Heath held his head high.

"Alright! Today you boys and girls have come here to tryout for the Gryffindor Quidditch Team!" The amplified voice of James Potter was heard through the pitch. Lily half expected him to crack a joke, but then she remembered James took Quidditch more seriously than anything else, which was a shame for his Charms grades. "I am James Potter—"

"And I am Sirius Black—" Sirius' voice also increased in volume.

Then together they finished with, "And we are the captains of the team."

"Isn't there supposed to be only one captain?" said a voice from the crowd of students.

"Why don't you shut your trap?" Sirius shot at the burly fourth year boy, whose face was now flushing the color of tomatoes. "Or you might find my bat-"

"Today," James cut in, "you are here to tryout for one of three positions. Chaser—"

"Beater."

"Or Seeker," Sirius and James said together.

"If you are trying out for the Chaser position, please follow me to the north end of the pitch." James said waving his arm.

"And those of you for Beater follow me to the south end of the pitch." Sirius also waved his arm.

"Those of you playing for Seeker will have to wait until we decide you're worth it and think you might have a shot," James said seriously, though Lily thought it was just an act to scare them. And as she looked around, many of the students, did look frightened. Lily laughed.

"Good Luck everyone!" Both James and Sirius concluded.

The group split. About half of the group, including Lily and Heath, followed James. A fourth of the group, including Mikey, followed Sirius. And the rest, went to the seats around the pitch to watch and wait their turn. James made them do a number of tasks and tests. They practiced catching and throwing the Quaffle. Then they played small games of three on three while James and the team's other current Chaser, Frank Longbottom, watched. Lily and Heath each scored two goals on the team's Keeper, Asher, a strong quiet fifth year, and assisted two goals: each others'.

They also had to practice dodging Bludgers, so they teamed up with the people trying out for the Beater position. Each person trying out for the Chaser position had to get past someone trying out for the Beater position. They either got a Bludger shot at them or they had to dodge someone flying straight at them without dropping the Quaffle. Mikey almost unseated Lily, but she managed to do a wobbly 360, and continue flying. Heath, on the other hand, absorbed a hard blow to the shoulder, but managed to stay on his broom.

Finally after about three hours of throws, dives, bumps, scores, and endless whispered conversations among the current team members, the people trying out were able to sit and take a break while, yet more conversing took place among James, Sirius, Frank, and Asher, hovering above the pitch. Even Lily started getting restless. The four seemed to be having a deep discussion in which they were not in agreement.

Heath, Mikey, and Lily all sat together in silence. They were all too nervous and too exhausted to speak. Mikey rubbed and rotated his shoulder. Heath laid flat on his back expressing that he felt completely unable to get through the Seeker tryout. Lily was mindlessly combing through her double knotted hair, trying to convince her brother he could do it. All three were startled when they finally heard James's voice.

"First of all, I would like to thank everyone for coming. You all have talent but there are only three spots open." James's magnified voice echoed across the pitch once again. "Please know that you should all try out again next year if you'll be here because you all showed some amount of skill. And if you are in your seventh year, please continue to play, even if it is just for fun." Lily looked around and realized she was the only seventh year among the students trying out. Though she didn't have a great desire to be on the team, her stomach sank just a bit with the failure.

"What about the Seeker tryout?" a girl called from the stands.

"We'll get there," Sirius said grumpily. "Once your name has been called, please go into the team locker room. At the end, if your name hasn't been called, you may go back to the school, and you won't have to worry about the grueling time-consuming practices, aching muscles, or early weekend practices. " Sirius assured the group. "For the open position of Beater," Sirius let the suspense rise a little. "Michael Short!" Everyone applauded, some politely, some louder. But the atmosphere was still tense.

James spoke again, "And for the open chaser position…Heath Evans!" Lily gave her brother the biggest hug she had ever given anyone, and he was beaming. She really was proud of him; she only wished that they could have been on the team together. So, not having any reason to stay, Lily grabbed her broom and made to stand up.

"For the last position, a very rare decision has been made." The words made Lily sit back down out of sheer curiosity. Everyone was holding their breath. "A very rare thing happened today," James continued. "The four of us up here had the opportunity to see a phenomenon we had only heard about. This rare thing has caused me to step down from my position as a chaser," James said regally. Lily wasn't sure where James was going with this, and she listened to the surprised whispering from those around her. "But do not fret, I shall take up the worthy position of Seeker." James inclined his head.

"Because of the sheer genius we witnessed on the pitch today, the last chaser for our team this year will be . . ." Sirius let the suspense build.

"Lily Evans!"

Lily felt her eyebrows shoot up into her hair and a smile creep across her face. "What?" Lily blushed fiercely. "But you said-"

"Come on, Evans! Locker room! Now!" James acting like a drill sergeant, descended to the grass, dismounting from his broom at the same time, so that when he landed it was already at his side, marched over to Lily, and frog marched her all the way to the locker room. Lily's mind was a mess of confusion, joy, disbelief, and wonder as she was plowed over by her tiny ecstatic brother.

"You made it! You made it!" Heath sang to his sister. "You made it! I made it! Mikey made it! –"

"You _all_ made it. Congratulations." Their captains and teammates joined their newest team members in the locker room.

"Mikey, you've got one hell of an arm, kid! Where have you been hiding?" Sirius exclaimed as all the old members began congratulating the newcomers.

"And Lily and Heath! Wow! You two kicked arse out there! Slytherin won't stand a chance against the two of you!" Sirius was so excited he was almost bouncing off the walls.

"Yeah! Both of you were good separately, but together, you blew the rest of them out of the pitch!" James exclaimed.

"You didn't have to give up your chaser position just because of me," Lily fretted.

"No, no, no, my dearest Lily. I like playing seeker too," James grinned. "Honestly, it's best for our chances of winning if you and your brother play chaser together. You were talking about siblings being on the same channel, I think you two are legilimens experts! Add Longbottom, and the three of you will be invincible!"

"But-"

"Alright, down to business," Sirius cut Lily off. "Practice will be Tuesday and Thursday from 5:00pm until dinner."

"Also," James added, "Sunday mornings from 9:30am to 11:30am. We know it's a big commitment, but we feel we have a great chance to win this year. Longbottom, Evans, and Evans as Chasers; Black and Short as Beaters; Asher at Keeper; and yours truly as Seeker; we'll be unstoppable!"

"Alright guys and gal, hands in!" Sirius yelled putting his hand in the middle of the huddle. "'Gryffindor' on three. One…Two…THREE!"

"Gryffindor!" the entire team shouted, altogether for the very first time.

"That was so nerve-wracking! I can't believe you talked me into that," Lily laughed as she and James walked back to their dorm.

"Come on. It wasn't that bad. You were amazing. Honestly, I think this will be the best year we've _ever_ had. You and your brother are _wicked_ together! You'll really throw Malfoy for a loop!" James exclaimed, jumping the stairs two at a time.

"Well I'm glad you had fun," Lily shook her head as she laughed at him.

"You didn't have fun?"

"Sweet Tarts!" Lily said to Sir and Lady Zanath as they bowed and curtsied respectively from their ornate golden frame. "No, I did have fun, but what am I going to do about studying? I don't know if I'll be able to balance studying, Quidditch, and Head Girl duties…" Lily slumped into a chair in the Common Room. "And we have to come up with an amazing Halloween Ball."

"Lily, Lily, my beautiful Lily. If I can do it, so can you!" James exclaimed, trying to make her feel better.

"Nice try, but I like to actually stay awake during class," Lily said with a half tease, "and I care about the grades I receive." James set his elbows on the back of the chair and put his hands on Lily's back, massaging her tight muscles. Though she didn't want to admit it to him, it felt nice. She not only felt the soreness in her muscles melt away, but she felt calmer, safer.

Then, she came back to reality. "I need to take a shower," she stood up. "I smell!" Lily exclaimed with a giggle.

"Well I wasn't going to say anything…" James joked and Lily punched his arm. "I need to take one too."

Lily took a sniff in his direction. "You sure do!" She fanned at the air around him.

"Well, you smell just as bad as me," James said with some attitude. "I thought lilies were supposed to smell pretty!" And James ran up the stairs.

Lily ran after him shouting, "You take that back, James Potter!"

* * *

_**Okay, if you enjoyed it, hated it, can't stand it, laughed at it, laughed with it, or even just read it, I'd love to hear from you.  
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_**I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I hope you come back to read the next one, too.  
~MissChievous13  
**_


	8. 08: The Fire

**_Hello :D_**

**_Here's the next chapter. I hope you enjoy reading it.  
Thanks to jane and dwarfperson for you reviews!  
And Thank You to all of you who have added my story.  
I'd really like to know what you think, too :)_**

* * *

**Chapter 8- The Fire_  
_**

"Okay, let's try this once more." Lily said. Both Lily and James had changed out of their Quidditch robes, cleaned up, eaten lunch, and were now in their common room with their wands out and cushions surrounding them. "Just keep thinking about the pillow even though your attention is on the cup."

In Charms, Lily's best subject and James' worst, they had been learning how to control objects while they were concentrating on another task, using the _Contrata_ charm. The _Contrata_ charm was similar to _Wingardium_ _Leviosa_, but it gave the witch or wizard even more control over the object, allowing him or her to focus on other tasks or even levitate more than one object at once. Lily was having James practice controlling the pillow while he moved the cup across the table with his hand. Unfortunately, the pillow kept dropping out of the air every time he picked up the cup.

"Ugh… it's no good, Lils. I just can't do two things at once. But thanks for trying to help this lost cause." James sighed as he plopped down dejectedly next to Lily on the couch.

"Sure you can! You do it all the time! Breathing, walking, talking…" She trailed off as her attempt to lighten the mood failed, and she saw the helpless look on his face. So she thought for a second and changed tactics. "When you play Seeker in Quidditch, you think about what's going on in the game, but you're still searching for the Snitch, right?" James nodded with still a trace of defeat still in his eyes. "Well, think of this pillow as the game, and the cup as the Snitch."

Lily saw something spark in James' eyes, and as he jumped up from the couch, "That makes more sense." Then whispered, "Let's try it!" as if plotting a very mischievous prank. So Lily set up the pillow and the cup as James cleared his mind. James swished his wand right then left then right again and flicked it at the pillow as he shouted "_Contrata_!" The pillow rose into the air and James moved his wand right and left and up and down making sure he had control.

James took a deep breath and Lily crossed her fingers, and silently prayed to herself. Very slowly, James stretched out his hand, uncurled his fingers, and closed them around the handle of the cup. He turned his head back to the pillow and moved it right and left again. Just as he moved it up again, he turned his head back to the cup and lifted it off the table. As he moved the cup across the table he made the pillow to somersaults in the air. And just as he set the cup down, one sharp flick of his wand sent the pillow sailing into Lily.

"Got you!" James exclaimed with a triumphant smile on his face.

"Well, I hope you're happy!" Lily replied huffily.

"Aww, come on, Lils. It was only a joke!" James whined sounding like he regretted it. She was lying on the couch, her face out of James' sight. "Lily, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to—"

_THUMP!_ Lily hit him square in the nose with pillow. "Got you back!" Lily replied gleefully taking a moment to bask in her success. But James didn't take long to retaliate. He charmed a cushion right off the couch from under Lily and was about to squash her with it, but she was quick. Lily charmed the cushion and it hit James instead.

"Hey! Not fair! I had it first!" James whined.

"Aww, is little baby Potter, getting beat up by a little girl?" Lily flashed him a devilish smirk as she flicked her wand and swiftly attacked him with two more pillows, one on each side of his face. Lily giggled. "It'll be good practice for you! Or can you not handle trying to hit me with a few measly pillows _and_ block them at the same time?" Lily challenged.

Although James wasn't very good at using the _Contrata_ charm, Lily found out he was exceptionally skilled at using _Wingardium_ _Leviosa, _She never expected the onslaught of pillows, and once he got in a good hit, James showed no mercy. Lily was instantly victim an endless attack of feathers and cotton. James had no doubt acquired pillow fighting skills as a result from some Marauder mischief. Right and left pillows bombarded Lily, despite her best efforts. A couple of times she caught him in the face, but finally she gasped, "Okay! I give up!"

"What? What's that? I can't hear you!" James yelled back with laughter in his voice.

"I said 'I GIVE UP!'" She shouted from beneath the colorful assortment of pillows, cushions, and anything else soft and light James could spot.

"Oh! You give up? Well, why didn't you say so?" James teased as he ceased his pillow brigade. "I thought you said '_Keep_ it up!'" he claimed as he collapsed back onto the now cushion-less couch.

"Sure you did," Lily rolled her eyes as she tried to catch her breath. She could feel her red cheeks, and the mess that probably was her hair, for the second time that day. "You are ruthless with those pillows. I think I'm going to have some bruises!" Lily joked as she collapsed beside him, exhausted from her Quidditch and pillow filled day.

"Oh," James crooned, "Does the little baby have a bruisey woozey?"

Lily playfully punched his arm, then realized how close they were. The right side of Lily's body was pressed against James, as they were both sunk deep into the cushion-less couch. James' eyes bore into her with an intensity she wasn't sure she was comfortable with. She could see the happiness in his eyes, and wondered where they would be now if she hadn't hated him in their first year. Lily could feel herself softening under James' intense gaze. She could feel the warmth of his body as their faces got closer. And she noticed for the first time, that when she stared into his eyes, she had butterflies. But she had never experienced this type of butterflies before. It startled her and she sprang off the couch saying, "We better head down to dinner soon. We wouldn't want to be late! Imagine what our crazy friends would say," Lily looked away fixing her hair.

"Right, they'd probably..." James stopped and decided not to finish the thought. Lily saw the change in his eyes and felt a twinge of regret, but James covered with a smile and said, "You're right! People might think we're, up to something," He smirked with a suggestive wiggle of his eyebrows and a wink at Lily.

"Come on James. Let's go." Lily smiled and tugged him towards dinner.

Right outside the Great Hall, they heard familiar barking of Sirius Black. "Hey Potter! Where have you been all day? Moony, Wormtail, and I were just planning our next…" then he cut his jogging pace to almost a slow tiptoe. "You know, our next…our next chess night." Sirius finally found his words.

"_Chess_ night?" James asked apparently oblivious to what his friend was talking about.

"You know… where we go out and… play chess!" Sirius said desperately winking at his friend.

Something, clicked for James. "Oh! _Chess_ night! How could I forget! Is that really coming up?"

"Yeah, mate. Tuesday night!"

"Alright! But, you'll have to fill me in at dinner," James gave a microscopic head nod in Lily's direction, which she noticed.

"Chess night? Sounds interesting! Can I come?" Lily innocently asked. She had a pretty good idea what the two Marauders were talking about, but she was determined to play devil's advocate, since James so often did.

Each of the present Marauders turned to each other with his eyebrows raised in shock. "Uh," James stalled. "It's… it's kind of a guys' night. Yeah! Only the guys, you know, just us immature Marauders." He stood up, grabbed Sirius by the shoulder and said, "Okay, we have to go. See you later!" And they ran out of the hall.

Lily looked into the Great Hall to see if her friends had come down to dinner yet. They hadn't, but she did spot Severus among a gathering of Slytherins. In another time, she would have thought nothing of going over to him and discussing something or other, but of course, she couldn't do that now. For barely a second, she though he caught her eye. And in that moment she thought she saw a flash of pain, but it was so fast, she could have easily imagined it. Suddenly, she lost her appetite and doubled back out of the Great Hall. If Severus wanted to join up with the Death Eaters, then that was his choice. His business. His life. But then why did it bother her so much? Why did she feel like part of her heart was-

"Oh, sorry!" Lily apologized as she got to her feet. Rubbing her head, she looked up at the person she had just run into. "Kat? What are you doing here?"

"Ouch," Kat laughed. "That's a nice way to greet your best friend," she said rubbing her elbow. "What am _I_ doing here? What are _you_ doing here?" Lily looked around. She seemed to have gone in the direction of Gryffindor Tower, without even realizing it. Kat looked at her friend with concern laced in her brown eyes. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm," but Lily was stopped by the look Kat was giving her.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Kat said with an annoying I-know-everything-you're-thinking look.

Lily bit her lip, "I really do, but," she leaned against the cold stone wall. For a few seconds she stared at a picture of three witches levitating lit orbs in a forest. Occasionally, they looked back at Lily, waiting for her to continue.

Smiling, Kat reached out and touched Lily's arm, "It's okay. You can tell me," she gave Lily's arm a squeeze. "Remember? We're best friends."

"No, you're right," Lily tried to return the smile. "I'm just afraid of what you'll say. Or what you'll think of me."

Kat leaned back against the wall with her friend. "Come on. I'm your best friend. If you can't tell me, who can you tell?"

Lily's heart swelled at her words, emotion pricked the back of her throat, and she grinned a true smile for her friend. "Okay, but let's go in that classroom," Lily pointed a cross the hall, "so no one overhears." The setting sunlight slanted through the classroom windows, making everything look orange and too bright. The girls sat at a table together.

"Alright," Kat said. "Let's hear it. You think Hagrid is the world's best looking man, and you want to marry him, and have elephantine babies, I know all about it," Kat grinned evilly.

"Kat!" Lily laughed. "Well, he is pretty good looking," Lily said seriously. It was Kat's turn to look shocked. Lily laughed at her expression, "No, no. It's not Hagrid and his good looks that are troubling me. It's James."

"I knew it! I wasn't going to say anything until you did, but I just knew it! I knew from the moment we all met, that you and James were made for each other! Ha!"

Lily clamped a hand over her friend's mouth, "Shh! Someone could hear you!"

Kat broke Lily's hold, "What are you so worried about, Lily? Girls have crushes all the time at Hogwarts! And the Marauders happen to be very popular choices."

"I know but, everyone knows that I hate him. And everyone knows that I've said 'no' to him countless times," Lily twisted her hands. "What would they say if, and I said _if_, we started dating?"

"Whoa!" Kat put her hands up. "Let's back up. I had no idea you were already thinking about dating him. What happened to playing hard to get? Can you explain what happened, please? Remember, we never get to talk anymore."

"Playing hard to get? What gave you the idea I was doing that?"

"You did," Kat laughed. "Remember? You admitted to me that you thought James was cute, in our second or third year, I can't remember which. But you said that you saw in a movie once that the way to truly win over a guy is to play hard to get."

The blush in Lily's cheeks exploded like fireworks, "Oh yeah," she mumbled. "Now I remember. I guess the playing grew to be my real feeling after what happened in our fifth year," Lily set her jaw. "But I realized that I can't blame James for Severus destroying our friendship anymore. James never helped it, but in the end it was Sev's choice to abandon it," Lily gulped back the emotion rising in her throat. "I also thought about why James is Head Boy. Professor Dumbledore would not have put him in the position for no reason. His grades improved a lot last year, and I can tell that most of the time he really works hard in his studies." Lily took a deep breath.

"And?" Kat said with a hint of impatience.

"Well, I started remembering the first time we met. And I sort of confessed all of this to him," Kat gasped, "while he was sleeping! But after he woke up, I promised to take it easy on him, and he promised not to prank people in front of me, and now. . . " Lily trailed off thinking about earlier that day when they had been sitting so close.

Lily noticed Kat staring at her with an unfathomable grin. "And you're falling in love with James Potter!"

Lily was surprised to find her lips in a smile, "Well, I don't know if I'd say 'falling in love,' but becoming friends, maybe."

"Uh-huh," Kat raised a skeptical eyebrow, "It seems to me you passed friends a couple weeks ago. Tell me, Lily, what were you just thinking about?"

"What do you mean?"

"You certainly know what I mean!"

Lily took a breath, held it for a few seconds, then let it out saying, "Okay, but it was really nothing," Kat didn't look like she believed Lily, "we were just studying earlier, and we were sitting really close-"

"Ohmigod! Did you kiss?"

"No!" Lily shouted, shocked that her friend was able to guess. "But I think he wanted to."

"Of course he wanted to! Every time he looks at you, it's plain as pewter cauldrons he wants to kiss you! The only difference, is that this time, it sounds like you wanted to kiss him too," Kat finished conspiratorially.

"I did not!" Lily said huffily. "We're just friends!"

"Sure, and I'm just a homework assignment away from having your grades," Kat scoffed.

"We are-"

"Okay," Kat took a defensive posture. "It's your call, Lily. I can see there's something else? You can tell me. I'm not going to spill the eel eyeballs."

"You promise you won't tell anyone?"

"You have my word."

"Well, what should I do if he tries to, you know, kiss me again?"

"Lily, you have to do what you feel. If you don't feel like letting him kiss you, then don't, you know that. But if you feel like it, it's okay to kiss him. You're not going to burn at the stake because of a kiss," Kat tried to show pure sympathy, but her smile was so wide it seemed to stretch off the sides of her face.

"Thanks, Kat," and Lily was truly grateful to have such a great friend.

The girls hugged each other. "Can I just say 'I told you so!'"

"Rub it in, Katarina." The two girls left the classroom and went to have some dinner, teasing each other the whole way.

After dinner, Lily went with Kat and Ali to the Gryffindor Common Room. When they got there, they noticed the Marauders whispering in a corner, unusually quiet. Lily followed her friends up to their room and found a welcoming familiarity in the atmosphere.

"So, this Halloween Ball business," Ali prompted in a business-like tone.

"Ah, yes. Ali and I have given it more thought. We think that as well as the games, we can have categories to vote for cutest couple, and best dressed, and things like that. You know?" Kat plopped down on her red and gold four-poster bed.

"That's an interesting idea. We could have a little charmed goblet for people to put their votes in. Like the Goblet of Fire! That way we can keep prats like Malfoy from voting for himself a hundred times." Lily plopped down right in front of Kat who always loved to braid her hair whenever they talked.

"Yeah! That's a great idea! We hadn't thought about that." Ali said.

"Our first Hogsmeade weekend is the weekend of the dance! We get to go shopping!" Kat exclaimed.

"Don't you think it's a bit early to be thinking about that? I mean, we don't even have dates," Lily said.

"Well, I guess you're right, but I love shopping," Kat sighed as her fingers combed through Lily's hair.

"Okay, well let's focus on the task at hand: getting dates. I know who I want to go with. Kat, you're working on Sirius, right?"

"Well, not '_working __on_'. More like, getting him to eat out of the palm of my hand!" Kat exclaimed with giddy excitement. "And now we can all be in a group together!"

"How do you figure?" Lily asked wanting to fix Kat with a stern stare but unable to unless she wanted her hair ripped out.

"Oops, sorry," Kat clamped a hand over her mouth.

"What did I miss?" Ali asked.

So, Lily told her other best friend about her attempted friendship with James, although she left out the almost kissing. But Ali's reaction was more or less the same as Kat's. "Perfect! Now we can all go together!"

"What? Wait a second. When I said we were friends, I didn't mean I was ready to be his date to a dance."

"Right, Lily. You are so blind, you can't see what's right in front of you face." Kat was always honest with Lily. Sometimes brutally honest, but Lily valued honesty over all things. "But now you'll just have to find a way to occupy yourself, since you refuse to join in because Ali and I are scheduled for our daily undertaking of our 'Win Over the Marauders Operation." She tied back Lily's expertly braided hair with a band and turned to Ali. "Ali dearest, the secret ingredient please."

Ali stood up and grabbed a bottle of what looked like perfume, off of her dresser. She sprayed some on herself, and then some on Kat. Then, to Lily's disgust and confusion, Ali surprise attacked Lily with some too. Lily wondered how long it would take James to start choking on the scent. But to Lily's surprise, the "Love's Spell" perfume, all of a sudden didn't smell so bad. In fact, it smelled like lilies, lavender, and cookies.

"What is this stuff?"

"It's a perfume with a special spell put on it," Kat explained, "that changes the scent based who you are thinking about when you but it on!"

"It's genius! But don't worry, it's not a real love potion," Ali added gravely.

Lily laughed, "You're kidding me, right? Don't you know what this reminds me of?" Kat and Ali looked at each other, then at Lily.

"No."

"It's just like Amortentia!" Kat and Ali continued to stare blankly. "From potions class? The most powerful love potion in the world? No? Never-mind," Lily said shaking her head.

Once Kat and Ali were satisfied with their primping, Ali led the way down the spiraling staircase while Kat explained their plan of attack.

When the trio entered the Common Room, Lily noticed Heath and Mikey entertaining their friends in a corner. She remembered one time she, Kat, and Ali had stayed up all night talking in that corner, with the plush velvety chairs, and the maroon carpet, still spotless after what Lily imagined must be decades of use. The fireplace in front of which they studied on cold nights, and where they got into a bit of trouble for roasting marshmallows, was still as warm and welcoming as she could ever remember it being. Even the high arching windows, with their golden latches held memories. For the first time that year, Lily truly longed to be sharing the same common room with her fellow house members, skittish first years, and pompous fifth years alike. Many students smiled at Lily, as she walked across the room, admiring the head girl that belonged in their house. Some faces were newer to her, and some, like the four huddled over a table talking in hushed voices, were as commonplace as the wand in her pocket.

Kat snuck up behind Sirius and tapped his right shoulder as she craftily slid behind his left. Sirius turned to his right, realized what was going on, and before she realized what was happening, Sirius swung his arm around and picked Kat clear off the floor. Making a spectacle as usual, Sirius slung Kat over his shoulder and mercilessly tickled her all the way to the sofa.

Ali, whose style was much different, walked up to Remus and said simply, "Hi, Remus. Are you alright? You look a little down today." Ali sounded sincerely concerned. Remus stood up, assuring her that he was fine, then politely asked her if she would join him by the fire. The two of them took a seat in front of the crackling flames and began a conversation while Peter skulked away from the table to go speak with a modestly pretty fifth year girl, who's name Lily remembered was Courtney.

That left Lily standing by James as he began cleaning up the table. He hastily collected all the paper the Marauders had been crowding around, but Lily, as observant as she was, noticed a calendar. Her eyes were immediately drawn to the highlighted square labeled, "September 17th." Next Tuesday. She also noted the two small words at the bottom of the square, "Full Moon," and knew her previous suspicions about "Chess Night" had been correct.

"Tuesday is a full moon." Lily said quietly.

James froze in the middle of jamming a piece of parchment into his bag. "How observant of you, Evans," James said nervously. "Next I suppose you'll be informing me that broomsticks travel up."

"Oh, very funny," Lily said as she picked up the calendar. "I'm sure you know what that means," she turned her questioning bright green eyes on James, who chose to avoid their stare. "Of course you must know it is when our very good mutual friend Remus will be going through some, shall we say, changes." Lily whispered. Seeing the look of shock on James' face, she explained, "You learn a lot about the person you patrol with. Especially if you're really good friends with him. It's difficult not to notice that your partner always makes up some random excuse at the same particular time every month."

"You know about. . . about," James leaned in and whispered, "his furry little problem?"

Lily giggled, "Yes. And now I understand what 'Chess Night' is. I knew we didn't have a Chess club, because I would have joined," she said seriously.

Kat's laughter rang out loud enough for the whole Gryffindor tower to hear. She was in quite the state of raucous giggles, shouting for Ali to look at something that was undoubtedly the funniest thing she had ever seen in her life.

"Hey, James," Lily said checking the time on the Grandfather Clock against the wall, "We have to patrol soon."

"You are correct," he said, also looking at the clock. They said good night to their friends. Sirius cracked a wise comment about James and Lily having to "be alone," and everyone laughed, even James, though he paired the laughter with a slug to his friend's shoulder. As the scene played, Lily noticed just how perfect it all seemed. There they all were, in one common room together, they way it should be. Joking and laughing on a Saturday night in their seventh and final year at Hogwarts. She was surprised to see Ali's hand in the bashful Remus' and winked at her while Remus was laughing at Sirius and James. Kat and Sirius were both too cute and absolutely hilarious teasing and laughing at each other. And Lily felt that familiar hatred toward the person that kept this from being an everyday occurrence. The person who kept Lily and James separated from their friends. The person who made times like these seem small and pointless in the grander scheme of things.

"Shall we go?" James whispered in Lily's ear, causing her to jump out of her thoughts. She nodded and followed him back to their dorm. As James followed Lily down the hidden steps to their common room, he asked, "What's that smell? It smells like. . . flowers."

Lily remembered the perfume and thought it slightly amusing, not to mention ironic, that James' favorite scent was flowers, given her name. "Oh, it's just some perfume that Ali put on me. You like it?" Lily asked. Then she realized that she sounded hopeful, and mentally smacked herself in the forehead.

"Yeah! It smells really nice. Like…lilies." James turned a slight shade of pink, and Lily giggled at him, which made him even more embarrassed, causing him to blush even more.

"Well, we should be getting on with our patrolling duty. Yippee." Lily exclaimed with sarcasm dripping from each syllable. It was James' turn to laugh.

"I didn't realize it was that late already. I'm gonna go grab the map, I'll be right back!" James then turned and sprinted up the stairs, and in less than a minute, he was back in the Common Room staring at the map. "Ah ha! Target number one of the night, ladies and gentlemen. Lucius Malfoy and Narcissa Black, empty classroom, fourth floor!" James said as a game show host might, with a huge grin that clearly showed he was "up to no good".

In less than two minutes, Slytherin lost a whopping one hundred points, as it was the third time Malfoy and Black had been caught. But Malfoy's sputtering and nonsense spouting in confusion and bewilderment as to how they had been found, was better than taking away the hundred points.

There were two others caught that night, though they weren't doing anything nearly as bad as Malfoy and Black. With about thirty minutes left in their patrol, James noticed two little dots on the grounds of Hogwarts. One was a male, and one was a female. The two were out by the lake, no doubt going for a moonlight swim. "Hey, Lily. Look who we have here!" James pointed out the two dots by the lake.

Lily gasped in surprise at the names of the dots and started giggling. "Looks like we may have to break up a little flirt fest."

"But we must be very quiet. Sound travels towards the lake. Come on! Follow me," and James led the way to the grounds.

The two reached the outside air and headed for the lake. "Oh bugger, it's chilly out here. Don't you think so?" Lily said as she rubbed her arms inside her black school robes. She hadn't counted on patrolling outside of the castle on a chilly September night.

James, who had grabbed his cloak when he retrieved the map, took it off of his shoulder and handed it to her. "Here you go. You can wear this."

Lily accepted his offer, and felt much better when the cloak engulfed her in the warmth it retained from James' body. "Thank you." And to Lily's own surprise, she blushed, remembering this scene out of the movie she had told Kat so much about when they were younger. For a moment, James looked like he might just levitate off the ground from delight. Then he gathered himself, and stared at the map.

"There they are," James whispered. Then he chuckled, "Good ole' Padfoot."

Sirius was in shorts, his black mane a tangle of daring, trudging into the lake, and attempting to pull Kat in with him. "Come on, no one's here! You said you wanted to do something exciting, so let's go swimming!"

Kat, who was again, in a bad state of the giggles, was trying to hold on to the trunk of a nearby beech tree to keep Sirius from pulling her into the lake. "Sirius, no!" And she giggled some more, which, Lily thought, greatly lessened the seriousness of her demands. "Come on! I didn't mean 'let's go get hypothermia!' No! No!" Kat then lost her grip on the tree as well as her footing.

"Gotcha!" Sirius caught her and flung her over his shoulder for the second time that night, heading straight for the water. "Honestly, the water is quite warm. I promise, Kat."

"Sirius Black! What do you think you are doing out here!" James bellowed, sounding a lot like the Caretaker Filch. Sirius froze, and Kat stopped kicking.

Lily couldn't help it, she burst out laughing. Sirius unfroze, put Kat down and headed in Lily's direction. Lily hid behind James and shrieked as Sirius burst through the brush they had been hiding behind, with Kat running to catch up. "_You_!" Sirius demanded in a scandalized tone as he tackled James to the ground. "I'll show you to sneak up on me!" With that, Sirius grabbed James' leg and started dragging him to the lake. James was laughing so hard that he didn't even try to fight the impending destination of ice cold water. Just the look on Sirius' face was enough for Lily to understand why James wasn't fighting back.

"Hey, hey," Lily said to Kat as she wiggled her eyebrows at her. "A little midnight swim?"

Kat blushed, "Well, yes, I guess so. It wasn't my idea though, so don't you look at me like that, little lady."

"Looks like your plan is working!" Lily said, excited for her friend.

"Well, Ali and Remus were getting pretty comfortable with each other. If I recall correctly, she was laying her head down on his shoulder as he was rubbing her back. You know, I think she may be doing better than me… how about you?" Kat asked, noticing the cloak.

"Well…" Lily began. But she was interrupted as James swept her off her feet, and Sirius did the same with Kat. Both guys started towards the lake with the girls kicking and screaming the whole way. They high-fived each other, as the girls got out their wands and mouthed "One…Two…Three!" Each girl cast a different spell on their respective capturer. Kat cast a Jelly-legs hex on Sirius which caused both of them to land in the water. Lily caused some water to douse the entire front of James' body. As a result, James fell backwards in the shallow water with Lily on top of him.

By this time, Sirius had freed himself of the hex and was chasing Kat deeper into the water. Lily and James lay there, laughing at their friends. Lily turned to James, and caught the look of amazement her usually saw on his face when he was staring at her. For a split second, she felt a moment of pure joy when their eyes connected. Somehow, James' face was getting closer, and Lily didn't seem to mind. Obviously, there was something wrong with her. Confused and baffled by the bad case of the butterflies in her stomach, Lily abruptly stood up.

"Prongsie!"

"What Sirius?" James said, standing up and trying to act as if nothing had happened.

Kat shot Lily a quick glance that said, "just-friends-huh" in that annoying accusatory voice. Then she announced, "It's past twelve. Maybe we should head back before Filch catches us."

"Sounds like a good idea. Come on gang, let's go!" James led the way back to the castle after they had all dried their clothes with their wands. The four friends walked quickly through the halls, whispering the exciting play-by-play of their night, when finally, they had to part ways. Lily and Kat hugged each other good-bye, then Sirius and Kat went towards the Gryffindor Common Room, and Lily and James headed for theirs.

"Sweet tarts." James said to Sir and Lady Zanath. Then he bolted into the Common Room out of Lily's sight as fast as lightning. Confused by the sudden change in James' demeanor, Lily was slightly put out. But she continued walking into the Common Room wondering about what she would do if James ever tried to kiss her again, when James jumped out of the shadows at her, causing Lily to trip over a chair.

James caught her before she hit the ground, and for the second time in an hour, she fell victim to his golden hazel eyes. Lily felt the same joy, excitement and butterflies as last time, but this time, she didn't fight it as she felt his face getting closer and closer to her own. Before either had a chance to object, James' free hand cupped around Lily's face, as he pulled her in to him connecting their lips in a kiss. A kiss so powerful and filled with such emotion and energy, that sparks were flying from the tips of their wands, soaring through the air, but both Lily and James were too wrapped up in the magic of their first kiss and the feeling of each others embrace to notice.

Lily didn't know how long they had been kissing, but after some time, they both pulled apart and Lily opened her eyes to see James looking at her with a sweet smile on his face. Lily found herself smiling as well and she blushed and quickly looked away. James chuckled at her reaction. Finally, James spoke. "It's pretty late. Maybe we should go to bed."

"Do you smell something?" Lily asked.

"It wasn't me," James jumped up.

"No," Lily laughed, "I mean, it smells like," she sniffed the air, "something burning!" Lily finally caught sight of the sofa they were standing next to.

"What do we do!" James panicked and ran off in the direction of the stairs, then stopped and ran towards the bookcase, then changed directions again towards the hallway, as if he couldn't make up his mind which way was the best.

"Aguamenti," Lily twitched her wand, and a jet of water came out of the end, extinguishing the small flame that was burning the sofa.

James turned back to Lily, and ran over to her. With his hands on his knees, panting, he said, "It's a good thing we didn't panic."

Laughing at him, Lily said, "Yes. We might have looked really dumb running around the common room looking for a bucket of water."

James showed her a pouting face, but it soon turned turned into a slightly embarrassed smile.

"It's alright, I know you meant well," Lily smiled and giggled at him. Both Head Boy and Girl stood staring at their newly charred sofa, mulling over the situation, but soon Lily's thoughts were on her lips and James' lips. Suddenly, Lily found herself being pulled up the stairs by James' strong but soft guiding hand. Finally they reached the landing and James pulled Lily into a warm sweet hug.

"Good night, my Lily flower." James sweetly whispered in her ear. "Sweet dreams."

Lily pulled out of the hug very slowly and held James' hands in her own. "Good night, James. And sweet dreams to you too." Lily smiled and realized that she couldn't stop. She thought of how stupid she must have looked, just standing there grinning like an idiot. But slowly, despite her mad grin, they each went to their own door. As Lily went through her door, she turned and stole one last glance at the smiling James, then gently shut it.

Lily let out a huge sigh and ran and jumped onto her bed, unable to control her excitement. Her head was a mess of confusing and exciting thoughts. Ecstatic about the kiss, confused about what it meant, terrified of what Kat and Ali would say when she told them, and hoping that it would happen again sometime in the future. With all of these thoughts whirling in her head, she took a shower, brushed her teeth, hopped into bed, and her mind was still in full force about the kiss. It was a wonder she ever fell asleep that night.

* * *

**_So here we are :D_**

**_Just so you know, I could care less about the review stats. I just really want to know what you all think about the story._**  
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**_Misschievous13 signing out ^_^_**


	9. 09: The Owlery

**_Hi everyone!  
Another chapter edited and ready for your reading.  
__Thank you so much to _Goldpen, Er-my-nee Weasley, Kaweek, jane, dwarfperson, and Sidno!  
_Six reviewers! I'm so lucky to have you :) Thank you so much!  
Since beginning the rewrite, six is the most reviews I've gotten on one post. You're all amazing! Thank you!  
So, go on, and read the next chapter. Don't forget to tell me what you think.  
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**_Enjoy!  
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* * *

**Chapter 9 - The Owlery_  
_**

The next day, Lily and James went to their first Gryffindor Team Quidditch practice. Every time Lily looked at James, she was reminded of their kiss the night before, so she tried to avoid his gaze. This was an easy task, since she and Heath and Frank were weaving around the pitch at a rather significant speed. In fact, the practice went so well that James and Sirius were assuring everyone that they would, "beyond a doubt," be the winners of the Quidditch Cup.

After they washed up, Lily and James found themselves walking along the familiar corridors to the Gryffindor Common Room together. As they walked in, Lily saw Sirius, Kat, Ali, and Remus all squeezed onto one couch laughing at something or other, while Peter sat in a two-seater sofa by himself, trying to get in on the joke. So, Lily went up to him and tried to start a conversation.

"Hi, Peter. How are you these days? I feel like it's been such a long time since we've talked." Lily sat down next to him.

"Oh, umm… yeah, you have your own common room now, so I guess it's difficult to talk," Peter twitched.

"Wormtail, are you okay? You look like you got hit with a Slug Stomach hex or something," James came and squished himself between Peter and Lily.

"I'm fine!" Peter exclaimed as he jumped up and ran for the portrait hole. James and Lily exchanged confused looks then James followed Peter out the portrait hole.

"What was that all about?" Kat released herself from Sirius's arm and took James' vacated seat next to Lily.

"I don't know. I just tried to talk to him, and he ran for it." Lily answered still a bit shocked by Peter's sudden exit. "Maybe he's sick?"

Kat sat with her back against the arm of the sofa so that the rest of the group: Sirius and his pouty face, and Ali and Remus holding hands and laughing, couldn't hear their conversation. "So!" Kat began in an excited whisper. "What's going on with you and James?"

"Kat, don't you ever give up?" Lily replied rolling her eyes at the lunacy of her friend, but at the same time, Lily couldn't keep the godforsaken grin off of her face.

"Oh come on, Lily! I can practically see stars in your eyes and little hearts floating around your head."

Ali realized that she was missing out on some great gossip, so she flew over to her two best friends and squashed herself in between them. "So, Kat told me about your midnight swim, and now, it's your turn!" Ali demanded with a mischievous grin.

"You two are so outrageous," Lily said with an eye roll to top all eye rolls. But then she finally broke down after the girls tickled her and threatened to never stop until Lily told them every single juicy detail. "Ok, ok, fine!" Lily said still laughing with her hands up in the air in surrender.

"Yay! Story time!" Ali giggled in a whisper.

Lily flicked her wand and muttered _Muffliato_, so that she and her friends wouldn't be overheard. "Okay, well we were patrolling and noticed that Kat and Sirius were out by the lake. I'm assuming I don't need to go over what happened there, right?" Lily asked with a raised eyebrow at Kat.

"Yeah, I know all about that already!" said an extremely giddy Ali. Her tone then turned babyish as she cooed at Lily, "And how you and Jamsie-poo were lying on top of each other and—"

Ali was cut off by Lily's hand flying up and covering her mouth. Lily could feel Ali's full lips curl into a smile, and Lily stuck her tongue out at her as she let go. "Yeah, yeah, yeah, but do you want to hear the good part or not, Miss Smarty Pants?" Lily answered with a smirk.

"Ooooh! Spill it Lily Marie Evans, or I swear I'll tell everyone about last night!" Kat warned her friend with a threatening pointer finger, and her dazzling trouble-making smile.

"Okay, okay. No need to get hostile." Then she smiled too and proceeded in a whisper, "Well, we went back to the Common Room, and I was wondering what I would do if, you know, he tried to kiss me again."

"Wait," Ali interrupted. "What do you mean 'again'?"

"Lily said that she thought he wanted to kiss her while they were doing their homework in their cozy little common room," Kat provided. "Isn't that right, Lily?"

"Yeah, and also," Lily blushed, "When we fell in the lake and you and Sirius were wrestling. We almost kissed," her friends gave outraged and excited shrieks, but Lily kept going, "But I couldn't! I don't know, it felt strange. But later," Lily felt her stomach flipping around, and she couldn't stop the smile from plastering itself across her face. The kind of smile that shouts, _look at me! I just took Over the Moon potion, and I'm grinning like an idiot!_ "After we went back to the common room, James ran out of sight." Lily paused to let the tension rise. "And as I walked in, he jumped out at me. I kind of lost my balance and almost fell over, but he caught me and…" Lily trailed off and gave her friends the raised eyebrows and sideways smile, letting them know that they could guess what happened.

"No way!" Ali shrieked, flying to her feet and causing the entire Common Room to stare at the three of them as if they were nuts…which they were. It would be strange to see a girl bolt to her feet, red in the face from shouting, but hear no noise. Then both Lily and Kat put their hands over Ali's mouth and brought her back to a seated position. Though no one couldn't hear what the girls were talking about, they didn't want to have to answer any complicated questions about the secrecy spell.

"Who would have ever thought Lily and James Potter would be together? Oh wait, that's right. Me! But, kissing! By the way, is he a good kisser?" Kat asked with a solemnity that Lily could not fathom.

Lily only stared at her for a moment to make sure her friend was being serious, then said, "I don't know! Anyways, the sofa kind of started on fire, so I hadn't really contemplated his kissing ability."

"The what?" Kat shrieked.

"The sofa," Lily said simply. "It sort of caught fire."

Kat and Lily both started, hearing a strange noise. They turned to the source of the spluttering noise, and realized that Ali was trying to speak.

"Sorry," both girls said as they removed their hands from Ali's face.

She gasped for air and then said, "You started a fire?"

"Just a small one, and I put it out right away," Lily said defensively.

"That sounds so magical! He caught you and then you kissed, and your kiss was so magical it started a fire! Oh Lily, you're so lucky!" Ali said, and Lily laughed at her friend. Only Ali could think a sofa starting on fire was romantic. "Not that I'm not, but you used to hate James and now…amoré," Ali finished with a dreamy smile.

"All right, Ms. Starry-eyed-Short, we have some catching up to do! It looks as if Lily may get a date before us!" Kat grabbed Ali's arm, flicked her wand to counter Muffliato, and pulled Ali off the sofa they were all sharing to sit by Sirius and Remus once again, before Lily had time to defend herself or ask any questions.

Lily watched her friends flirt with their intendeds, and she found it rather amusing for a while, but soon began to wonder where James was and if he had found Peter. Peter reminded Lily of her mother, and how she would sometimes need to be alone for some time, to "sort through her thoughts" she would say. Her mother. She'd been so busy lately, she hadn't written her mum since she got to school. She snuck out of the Gryffindor Common Room, not wanting to face any accusatory looks from her friends who may think she was sneaking off to see James, and walked to her own room to write a letter to her parents.

_Dear Mum and Dad,_

_I miss you so much! I hope everything is going well with you. How's Petunia? School is going well over here. I'm sure Heath already told you, but we both made the Gryffindor Quidditch team! Quidditch is that game I tried to explain to you with the four balls and a team of seven players on flying broomsticks. Remember? It's kind of like soccer, but it's a lot more complicated and fun to play. You should have seen Heath. He was so nervous! But he did really well._

_I miss you both a lot, and I hope you are doing well. I'm already excited about coming home for Christmas! It's not that I'm not having fun over here, but I miss you. Plus, Dad's cooking is always the best at Christmas. Send Scarlett back with a reply if you have time. I hope everything is great. Hope to hear from you soon! Love you!_

_Yours Always,_

_Lily_

_PS: Mum; I have something exciting to tell you about, so make sure there's popcorn and hot chocolate when I come back! I love you!_

Rereading her letter as if she were her mother, Lily thought that her mum would connect the dots and realize she meant she had a boy story to tell her. Of course she could just say it in the letter, but then her mum would have so many questions if she read the name "James." Lily also didn't want her dad to get suspicious. Though she was close with him, he was still of the male gender. But Lily and her mum could talk about boys like best friends. Lily actually found it easier to talk to her mum about boys, than her friends sometimes. They would sit up in Lily's room and eat popcorn and drink hot tea or hot chocolate and paint their toenails, the Muggle way of course.

Lily's mum was the only person who had known of Lily's second thoughts about James, even from the beginning. And since Lily only came home for holidays during the year, she would have a clear head about everything. On rare occasions, like the fifth year incident, Lily would send a letter about how upset she was and how stupid James was, but her mum always reminded Lily of the fine line between love and hate. It was always annoying and maddening, but now, after her new-found feeling for James, she had to admit, that once again, her mother was right.

Her head was spinning so fast with thoughts, as she walked to the Owlery, that Lily shook her head trying to rid them off. She was unable to quiet her brain, which seemed to be going a million miles a second with thoughts of everything she had to do, and her mum and dad, and how she missed them, and James, and what her mum would say about James, and Quidditch practice, and Head Girl duties, and homework, and the Halloween Ball… Eventually Lily found her owl Scarlett up on a perch between Ali's and Kat's owls, as she slipped her way across the floor. It seemed even their owls were gossiping about the kiss.

There was a basket filled with twine, propped up on an old stool, for students to use. While she was choosing a piece, she was caught off guard by a very eager Scarlett, who swooped down from her perch and landed on her shoulder. "I know you've been cooped up for a while, so have a nice time and take this to mum and dad." Lily instructed Scarlett, who looked at Lily with confidence. Lily was always intrigued by how intelligent her owl was, and how she seemed to be listening to and understanding what Lily wanted. Scarlett was almost like a human, except that she couldn't speak. Lily stroked Scarlett affectionately, then helped her take off into the chilly night.

As she watched Scarlett disappear around a castle tower, Lily heard someone coming up the stairs. She turned to the door to leave but was stopped dead in her tracks when a tall student with white blonde hair, and a face in a permanent sneer, opened the door. Flanked by his two cronies, his cold grey eyes fell on Lily, and the regular sneer turned into a frightening sneer of delight.

"What are _you_ doing up here, Mudblood?" Malfoy spat.

"I don't see why it's any of your business," she crossed the dropping strewn floor of the Owlery, careful not to slip, to the only exit. Which unfortunately, Malfoy was blocking, "but if you must know, I was sending a letter to my parents. Now if you would please move, I have some things I need to get done." Lily tried to remain calm, but it was quite a feat to accomplish when her blood was boiling in her veins.

Malfoy gave a disgusted grunt. "Owl Post to those vile Mudblood-producing gits who taint the true magical world? I shall like to send my wishes to them." Malfoy hissed through his teeth.

"Better than having Voldemort-worshipping, pure-blood elitists for parents." Lily shot back with fire in her eyes. Even though Malfoy was about a foot taller than her, she still came face to face with him.

"How _dare_ you speak that way to me! You filthy Mudblood," And with that word, Malfoy took their verbal banter to a new and dangerous level. As he spat the insult at Lily, he backhanded her across the face.

Lily stumbled backwards and felt her eyes water. Her face stung, but she straightened up, looked straight into his cold, heartless eyes, and retorted, "Didn't your mother ever teach you never to hit a lady? Or does she lack the same fundamental manners as you?"

Malfoy gave her a snide look, and casually sauntered to the basket of twine. As he tied his letter to his owl's ankle, he replied, "Of course my mother taught me manners all pure-blood wizards should know. I'd never hit a lady," he said with an offended air. "But," he added as he let his owl take off out the window, "you're a Mudblood, which exempts you from being qualified. Therefore, I suppose I could hit you as much as I wanted to." Malfoy now started circling Lily like a cat playing with its next meal. "Those of us with _pure_ ancestry know that, but I understand you're not aware of the facts. You're just not, shall we say, high-class enough. Or, didn't your mother ever tell you that?"

Lily was shaking with anger but was soon brought to her senses when Malfoy suddenly turned on her. She thought quick and pulled out her wand, which caused Malfoy to slow his attack and retreat a bit as he too pulled out his wand.

In the background, Lily could hear Crabbe and Goyle guffawing and cheering on Malfoy, in their low unintelligent voices. But Lily couldn't hear exactly what they were saying because her blood was pounding unnaturally loud in her ears. Finally she found some courage and her voice. "Don't even think about it, Malfoy. Step out of my way, or you'll be sorry."

"Oh my Merlin! What are you going to do to me? Take points away?" Malfoy feigned fright as he resumed circling her. "Let's see, it's you and me… that's one against one. But then there's Crabbe and Goyle and," he acted surprised, "and no one else! Hmm, looks to me like it's three against one, and _you're_ telling _me_ to move?" Then, Lily heard his evil cackle that sent chills through her body. Icy chills, that suddenly turned to fire.

Malfoy must have seen the change from fear to her well-known fiery malice, because he spooked for a second. "So, you want to play?" Malfoy baited, regaining his usual scorn.

"I don't know. Do you think you can handle it?" Lily paused, debating whether to go on, but soon she was speaking again unable to activate the filter in her brain. The filter that divided the thoughts in her head, into the two categories of thoughts that should stay in her head and ones that should come out of her mouth. A trait she received from her mum. "Didn't your mum tell you to never play with fire? My mother was smart and caring enough to tell me, but then again, your mother doesn't have a very good track record, does she? I guess she just doesn't care about you, or maybe it's because she's just not plain smart enough." Lily silently cheered herself on.

But a split second later, Lily realized it was a mistake. She quickly focused back to the situation just in time. She saw Malfoy's mouth begin to form words and his arm begin to lift. Lily had to think quick or she knew she'd be toast. So she darted behind the basket of twine almost quick enough. The bright orange hex grazed her left arm, and immediately Lily felt a searing pain and warm liquid soaking the sleeve of her robes.

Moving quickly, Lily shot up from behind the basket while Malfoy was readying himself for his next attack, and hit him with a bat-boggy curse. Malfoy managed to get one last hex out before Lily's curse hit him, and it grazed her left cheek. It was enough pain to cause Lily to hide behind the basket again, holding her cheek, trying to stem the flow of blood.

"Why you bloody little Mudblood excuse for a witch! I'm going to—"

But what Malfoy was going to do to her, Lily never found out. The Owlery door burst open and Lily could hear the voices of James Potter and Sirius Black shouting curses at the three pieces of Slytherin slime. She had never been so happy to hear their voices.

Lily jumped up from behind the basket and stared at the scene. Malfoy's face was still covered in massive amounts of boggy, but now he also had pulsing boils all over his arms to match, and James was still going after him. It obviously wasn't difficult for Sirius to send Crabbe and Goyle into a frenzy of fear. Crabbe had been hit with a Jellylegs jinx and Goyle was trying to unjinx him, while Sirius was using _Wingardium Leviosa_ to send dropping-strewn straw into their faces. His guffawing laughter told Lily that he felt they produced no threat.

Suddenly, James yelped in pain. Lily turned to see him get kicked in the stomach by one of Malfoy's flailing legs. Malfoy couldn't see anything through the bogies, so he swung his limbs every which way in an attempt to save himself. Eventually, he countered the bat-boggy hex and found his way to the door, but he didn't leave until he shot one last curse at James. Crabbe and Goyle stupidly scrambled after Malfoy with Sirius running after them. And like the madman he was, he shouted, "Dirty vermin on the loose! Catch them before they infest the castle! I'm not joking! I'm Sirius!"

Lily unfroze from her state of shock and frantically sprinted over to James. "Are you ok?" She sat down beside him on the bone-covered floor. James attempted to sit up, but Lily shoved him back down, a bit harder than she intended due to the slippery floor, causing James to gasp in pain. "You stay right there James Potter!"

"Well, I'm not dead… yet. But if you push me like that again, I might be." James gingerly reached his arm to feel his side where Malfoy's curse had struck him.

"Well, that's what you get for fighting! What were you thinking! You know it's against the rules!"

James gave her a look of disbelief. Quickly he sat up, too quickly for Lily to stop him, but she knew instantly that he had made a mistake. He lay back down, breathing heavily. "That's what…I get…for fighting!" James yelled between gasps and then shook his head. "I just came in here and probably saved your life, and you tell me 'that's what you get for fighting!'? You were fighting first!"

"Saving my life! Is that what you call sitting here on the floor covered in blood arguing with me? I should think not!" Lily replied, quickly rising to her feet. She saw him give an exasperated sigh. Lily was still so shaken that she knew she might not be acting very reasonably, but she was so upset that James was hurt, that she was taking her anger out on the only person in the room. Sighing, Lily hooked her elbows under his arms and started to pull. "Come on. Let's get you to the Hospital Wing."

James rose to his feet in silence. Lily wondered if it was because he was upset with her, or because he was in pain.

"Look," Lily began, "I'm sorry. I just hate that you're hurt and I guess—ow!"

"Oh, sorry. What's wro—oh my gosh! Lily! Your arm! And your cheek!" James had just grabbed onto Lily's left arm for support down the stairs and realized her injuries for the first time. "We need to get you to the Hospital Wing right now!"

Lily laughed at James' psychosis. Here he was, the one losing copious amounts of blood, and he was worrying about her mere scrapes. "Okay there Tanto, keep your pants on. Just…what?" James was looking at Lily with extreme suspicion, clearly not understanding what she meant.

"Sorry to burst your bubble," James began tentatively. "But I'm _not_ Tanto…who is that anyway? And I was _not_ about to take my pants off."

"Excuse me?" Then she laughed it off, remembering her dad's obsession with Western films and that James, most likely, didn't even know what a Western film was. "I didn't mean that _you_ are Tanto. It's just an expression…you know, like 'hold your horses.' You know?"

"Sure…" James replied, still eying her suspiciously.

They continued walking in silence for a bit, each needing their breath. Lily's arm felt like it had just been hacked at by a meat cleaver, and she was using all of her energy to hold James up. Lily was acting as James's crutch, and since he was a giant compared to her, she was having a bit of trouble keeping her legs going. But she wasn't used to James being quiet. "So…how did you find me?" Lily asked.

"After I talked to Peter, which he is acting a bit odd now that I think about it," James took a break to breathe. "Anyways, after I talked to him, I went to find you. I thought you'd still be in the Gryffindor Common Room, so I went there first." James panted. "The gang said that you had left and that they thought you went to look for me. So I went to our Common Room to see if you were there. When I couldn't find you, I just…well I…"

"You what?" Lily asked, afraid of the answer.

"Well, I guess I could tell something didn't feel right. It's like I could feel that you were in trouble." He paused a second to catch his breath. "I know it sounds stupid, but I felt it. So, I went to my room and grabbed the map. When I saw you in the Owlery with Malfoy..." Again James had to pause and catch his breath. It seemed to be getting more and more difficult for him to breathe, talk, and walk all at the same time.

"Do you want to rest a bit?" Lily spotted a wooden bench in the corridor.

"No," James grunted, "maybe it's best if we get to there as soon as possible."

"If you're sure," Lily said, wondering if he would make it. The color in his face was fading by the second.

"So I grabbed Sirius for back up on the way. I couldn't find Peter, and Remus is…well…due any day now, if you know what I mean." Yet again, he paused to breathe. "So the two of us raced…as fast as we could…and you…know the rest." Towards the end of his story, James became breathless more quickly.

"Well…thanks." Lily said as she blushed and looked away from James. She then mentally slapped herself back into the real world, and focused on getting James up the stairs and into the doors of the Hospital Wing. He was getting even more unsteady on his feet, but Lily stayed as strong as she could. She was a bit relieved to begin climbing the stairs because she knew that they were close, but that also meant there would be more physical exertion involved.

Lily felt James' body getting heavier with each step, but she attributed it to the rapidly growing fatigue in her legs. "Come on James, just a little further and you can lie down on a nice, comfy, hospital bed." But all of a sudden, Lily was hit with the full weight of James' body, and she could no longer hold it. They had made it just to the top of the stairs, so Lily managed to make them both fall onto the stairs' landing.

Looking at James, Lily realized he was as pale as a ghost. Her jade eyes, now filled to the brim with stubborn tears refusing to fall, traced the path they had just walked. She was hit with the realization of all the blood covering the floor; drops, footprints, and small pools where they had paused to readjust or catch their breath, marked where they had walked. Lily's heart stopped as she turned her gaze back to James' lifeless body in her arms. She couldn't move. She couldn't speak. She couldn't breathe. All she could think was that she had just let James Potter die after he saved her life.

* * *

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**_~MissChievous13_**


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